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BRITISH ZOOPHYTES.

" Antequam progrediar, non ab re fortasse fuerit objectioni alicui quas in me
moved potest occurrere. Non deerit scilicet qui me vaiise curiositatis argiiat,
quod res adeo viles et abjectas, ludlius in vita usus, indagaverim, iisque descri-

bendis tantum temporis et operae impenderim Cui respondeo, Quod Dei

opera sunt in quibus contemplandis memet exerceo : quod Divinae Artis et Po-
tentiffi effecta, quibus exquirendis subsecivas horas addico : quod Ili.e me in
hunc mundum introduxerit, tam inexplicabili rerum varietate instructum et or-
natum ; quodoculis, quosmihi contiilit, ea videnda, animo consideranda objecerit.
In Dei ergo contumeliam redundat, quod haec, quae eum creasse negare non

audes, supeiTacanea et inutilia esse affirmes Dices, Majora et magis neces-

saria studia sunt, quae totum hominem requirunt. Respondeo, Majoribus istis
me majorem euram impendere, interim tamen minora haec et lenora non opus
est ut prorsus negligam ; Utrique penso sufficio ; utrique temporis abunde sup-
petit, modo id prudenter dispensem, modo eaveam ne qua ejus pars omnino va-
cua prseterlabatur. Vitam (ut recte Seneca) non accepimus brevem sedfecimus,
nee inopes ejus, sed prodiyi sxtmus. Deinde Medici etiam severiores aliquam tem-
poris portionem recreationibus deputant. Hisce ego studiis et inquisitionibus
memet recreo et oblecto. Quod alii venationibus, aucupiis, confabulationibus,
lusibus insumunt, illud ego " Zoophytis" indagandis, colendis, contemplandis im-
pendo. Recreat et refocillat animum, quamvis laborios.ani sit, ilium quocmique
oblectatur." Raius.

llUNTEn BY JOHN STABK, EDlNBUKC.Ii.

HISTORY

OF THE

BRITISH ZOOPHYTES

BY

GEORGE JOHNSTON, M. D. Edin.

I'KI.l.OW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, AND EXTRAORDINARY MEMBER
OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

AKMS OF THE TOWN OF BERVVrCK-UPO.V-TWEED.

W. H. LIZARS, EDINBURGH :

S. HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET, LONDON; AND

W. CURRY, JUN. & CO., DUBLIN.

MDCCCXXXVIII.

\S38

O'/

i^y

^/f^^//^yy.////rM/'////y , ■

paribmis studiis et amore devinctisr

^^ / // Q^^^ yy^' '*'^y

PREFACE.

A Hum nee spiro, ncc si)ei"().

Since the publication of Ellis's Essay on Corallines in the
year 1755, no separate work has appeared in illustration of our
native Zoophytes. In the meantime, and more especially within
these few last years, a much more accurate knowledge of their
structure has been attained, and many species have been added
to the list ; and it has been my object to give here an account
of these discoveries, to connect them with what had been previous-
ly made known, and to combine the whole under a system
more in harmony with the anatomy of the objects than has
hitherto been done. If I have succeeded in bringing within a
convenient volume, the materials that at present lie scattered
through many expensive and miscellaneous ones, some of them
too of difficult acquisition, I may, perhaps, claim the merit of
having conferred no inconsiderable benefit on the student, even
should his future studies convince him that I have not forwarded
or enriched this particular branch of natural history by any no-
velties. Originality indeed has been less my aim than fulness
and accuracy of compilation ; but I have endeavoured to quali-
fy myself for this apparently humble task by many personal re-
searches and observations on the species that are found in my own
neighbourhood, under the conviction that a compiler will rarely
succeed in giving a correct idea or representation of the objects

vi PREFACE.

under investigation without a direct acquaintance with them.
It is indeed desirable that the author of" a work of this kind
shoidd have examined all the species, and in various distant lo-
calities, that he may justly characterize them, and estimate the
extent of their variations ; nor was the circumstance of the com-
parative unmoveableness to which a medical practitioner is
doomed unconsidered as a bar to my own competency, but the
love of the subject prevailed, especially when friends were readi-
ly found to contribute to the removal of the difficulty. To
them I have in this place to render my grateful acknowledge-
ments. To Mr Bean of Scarborough, Dr Coldstream of Leith,
J. V. Thompson, Esq. Inspector of Hospitals, for some time
resident in Cork, and the Rev. David Landsborough of Ste-
venston in Ayrshire, I stand indebted for numerous specimens ;
and similar communications of less extent have been sent me
in a friendly manner by John Edward Gray, Esq. of the British
Museum ; Mr Robert Embleton, surgeon in Embleton ; Messrs
Alder and Bowman of Newcastle ; Mr Teale of Leeds : J. Hosfo-
Esq. of Norton ; and Messrs Macgillivray and P. W. Mac-
lagan of Edinburgh. One other name must not be forgotten,
for, besides a friendly interest in the book, and his revision of it
during its progress through the press, I have had the kind as-
sistance of the Rev. Thomas Riddell, of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, whenever the assistance of a classical scholar was re-
quired.

I am not certain that any apology will be deemed necessary
for the notes and quotations which have been introduced with
considerable liberality, for the tastes of the naturalist have
ever seemed to me akin to those of the antiquary ; and this has
always been a favourite mode of illustration with the latter. It
is one that chimes in with my own humour, and the indulgence
of it seemed at least harmless on the present occasion. Many
of these notes are devoted to notices of the individuals who,
so far as I could learn, were the first to notice the species of

PREFACE. vii

zoophyte to which their names are respectively affixed, — foUow-
\ng immediately the specific character. This has been a
pleasing- inquiry. Smit with the beauty — real or fancied — of
the objects of his study, a curiosity is naturally awakened to
discover the name and degree of the person who had first deem-
ed it worthy of his examination and participated in our pleasure,
for we conclude assuredly that he who had taken the trouble to
record the name and treasure up the object, was one of like mind,
and imbued with much of the same affections and dispositions
as ourselves. Some of them were found to be men of renown,—
others in whom I felt a deeper sympathy, are now forgotten,
their name and their labours swallowed up in the higher and
more enduring reputation of those whom they were honoured
to assist and delighted to serve. The genuine naturalist will
not censure this " fond attempt" to restore the faint traces of
men who had sought the best occupation of a leisure hour in
congenial pursuits and studies ; but rather will with me lament
the obscurity and shortness of their " simple annals."

" Paullum sepultse distat inertiae
" Celata virtus. Non ego te meis
" Chartis inornatum silebo,
" Totve tuos patiar labores

" Impune carpere lividas

" Obliviones. * Hor. Carm. iv. 9.

It v/as gratifying to remark that most of my predecessors in
this field of inquiry were members of the medical profession.
How largely natural science, in all its branches, has been in-
debted for its progress to this body is too notorious to be insisted

* The first stanza in Shenstone's " School -mistress" may serve as a translation
of this passage -.

' ' Ah me ! full sorely is my heart forlorn,

To think how modest worth neglected lies ;

* * « * * *

let me try
To sound the praise of merit, ere it dies,
Such as I oft have chanced to espy,
Lost in the dreary shades of dull obscurity."

viii PREFACE.

on ; but it has been less noticed that the men who thus occu-
pied themselves in acquiring and forwarding a knowledge which
many may deem purely ornamental, were the same individuals
who were most engaged in the active discharge of the duties of
their profession, and the most instrumental, to its advance. Boer-
haave, Cullen, Hunter, Darwin and Jennerare very memorable
instances of this fact, which is illustrated with lesser brilliancy
in Lister, Sloane, Mead, Fothergill, Lettsom, Sims, Maton, in
Withering of Birmingham, in Percival and Hull of Manches-
ter, in Pulteney of Dorset, Stokes of Chesterfield, and nume-
rous others whose names will occur to every one conversant with
the history of medicine. This is only what on reflection might
have been anticipated, for that very activity of mind and per-
spicacity which originated and upheld their sagacity and suc-
cess as practitioners, was sure to carry them far in whatever
side-path the natural bent of their taste led them for the oc-
cupation and entertainment of the leisure hours which the busi-
est must have or may create. Idleness has no leisure. Were
it necessary I might safely shelter myself under the cover of
these exemplars, in the contemplation of whose lives I have of-
ten nurtured my love to my profession, — and hence, perhaps,
an ambition to follow them even at a far distance ; — but there
never was a time when it was necessary to vindicate to any but
the ignorant the erratic excursions of medical men into the fields
of science and literature, for assuredly the rank which the pro-
fession as a body has taken and holds in public estimation de-
pends for its patent, in part at least, on the scientific and lite-
ary character of its professors ; and by continuing to support
that character they will best secure it from the vulgarity of a
connnon mercature, or the selfishness of a venal quackery.

Zoophytes present to the physiologist the simplest indepen-
dent structures compatible with the existence of animal life,
cnabliufr him to examine some of its phenomena in isolation
and free frtnn the obscurity which greater complexity of aiiato-

PREFACE. ix

my entails : the means of their propagation and increase are the
first of a series of facts on which a theory of generation must
rise ; the existence of vibratile cilia on the surfaces of membranes,
which has since been shewn to be so general and influential
among animals, was first discovered in their study ; and in them
is first detected the traces of a circulation carried on indepen-
dently of a heart and vessels. The close adhesion of life to a
low organization, — its marvellous capacity of redintegration ; the
organic junction of hundreds and thousands of individuals in one
body, the possibility of which fiction had scarcely ventured to
paint in its vagaries, have all in this class their most remark-
able illustrations. On the geologist zoophytology has pe-
culiar claims. Its subjects are apparently the first of animals
which were called into existence, and from that high date to
this time, they have played a part in the earth's mutations, from
chaos to the present well ordered scene, greater perhaps than
any other class of beings. Separating from the waters of the
ocean the calcareous matter held in solution, they reduce it to
a solid state ; constructing therewith their varied j)olypidoms or
corals which, by their continual growth, their coalescences, their
enormous numbers and extent, first roughen the smooth basin
of the sea, raise up reefs and ridges that obstruct the hitherto
open course of navigation, and become ultimately the founda-
tion of islets and islands that remain the " monumental relics"
of the puny race. As now the process and change goes on in
tropical seas, — so operated it, in the preadamic times, over the
waters of the globe, for it is principally from the debris of poly-
pous excretions that the extensive beds and quarries of chalk and
limestone which are found in every region of the globe take

their original.* But it is to the zoologist that I exclusively

address myself in this work, and however considerations like
the above may enhance the importance of the subject in the es-
timation of others, they sway him little, and lie apart from his

* See Lamarck's Anim. s. Vert. ii. 10-
b

X PREFACE.

more immediate objects. He finds his pleasure in the con-
templation of their novel forms, in the examination of those cha-
racters which distinguish them as species, in the quest of their
mutual affinities, their relations and analogies with other beings,
the order in which Creative Wisdom may seem to have called
them into existence, their habits, economy and uses ; — and in
all these things he is ever watchful to find a " moral compli-
ment" that the pursuit to which his taste and constitution of mind
has led him may be neither uninfluential nor virtueless on his
heart.

The plates and wood-cuts which illustrate the volume are,
with few exceptions, original, — engraved from drawings made
for it by Mrs Johnston, who is herself the engraver of fourteen
of them. The naturalist who may have attempted similar il-
lustrations will appreciate the labour, perseverance and skill
which has been bestowed upon them, and will not harshly
censure any errors of detail which a minute criticism may dis-
cover. As I could not have undertaken this history without
her assistance, I may crave, from any one who shall find a merit
in it, the ascription of that merit to my colleague.

Behwick-upon- Tweed,
August 15, 18.38.

CONTENTS.

History of Zoophytology,

Page 3—29

Opinions of the Ancients,

3—4

Imperato,

4

Peyssonel and Reaumur,

5—7

Jussieu,

8

Peyssonel and Parsons,

10—11

Baker,

11—13

Ellis,

13—17

Linnaeus,

17—20

Baster,

20—23

Pallas and Ellis,

24—27

Nature of Sponges,

28—29 and 325

Zoophytes, definition of

30—31

Polypes, what? - -

32

Their distinction into two classes,

33

The structure of Ascidian polypes.

33—36

Hydraform polypes.

36 38

Asteroid polypes,

38 41

Helianthoid polypes.

41

Circulation of the Sertulariadae,

41—43

Ascidian polypes.

43—45

Food of Polypes,

45—46

Generation of polypes, and their ova,

46—48

Evolution of the ova,

48—49

The ova of the Flustrae,

50—51

Polypidoms, Chemical composition of.

52—33 and 76 77

Their forms,

53—54

Their formation,

55

Zoophytes, classification of, by Ellis,

55

Linnaeus,

56

Pallas,

57

MuUer,

58

Blumenbach,

39

Cuvier,

59—6 1

Lamouroux,

62—64

Lamarck,

65—66

xii CONTENTS.

Zoophytes, classification of, by Fleming, - - Page 68 — 71

Latreille, - - - - 71

Rapp, - _ - 72

Blainville, - 73—75

Zoophytes, their division into four orders, - 75 76

Zoophyta Hydroida, definition of, - - 81

general observations on - 81 — 91

their Families and Genera, - 91 — 92

Family Hydraidae, - 93—108

Tubulariadae, - 109—118

Sertulariadae, - 119—159

Asteroida, definition of, - - 1^3

general observations on - 163 — 174

their Families and Genera, - I '*

Family Pennatulidae, - 175 — 181

Gorgoniadae, - 182 — 186

Alcyonida?, - 187—192

Helianthoida, definition of, - - 195

general observations on - 195 — 204

their Families and Genera, - 205

Family Madrephylliasa, - 206—209

Actiniidae, - 210—234

Ascidioida, definition of, - " 237

general observations on - 237 — 246

their Families and Genera, - 247 — 248

Family Vesiculariadse, - 249—259

Crisiadae, - 260—266

Tubuliporidae, - 267—272

Celleporidae, - 273—282

Escharidce, - - 283—299

Alcyonidulae, - - 300—307

Limniades, - - 308 — 324

Note on the sexes of Zoophytes, - - 325

the anatomy of the Hydra, - - 326

the cells of the Escharidoe, - - 327

BRITISH ZOOPHYTES.

PART I.

The History of Zoophytology ; and on the Structure,
Physiology, and Classification of Zoophytes.

TUBULARIA RAMEA.

" In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas
" Corpora." — Ovid. Metamorph. i.

" Ipse maniis haustu victrices ahluit unda -.
Anguiferumque caput dura ne laedat arena,
Mollit humiim foliis, natasqiie sub tequore virgas
Steniit, et imponit Phorcynidos ora Medusse.
Virga recens, bibulaque etiamnum viva medulla
Vim rapuit monstri, tactuque induruit hujus,
Percepitque novum rarais et fronde rigorem.
At pelagi nj'mpha; factum mirabile tentant
Pluribus in virgis, et idem contingerc gaudent :
Seminaque ex illis iterant jactata per undas.
Nunc quoque curaliis eadem natura remansit,
Duritiem tacto capiant ut ab aere, quodque
Vimen in Eequore erat, fiat super sequora saxum."

Ovid. Metam. iv.

BRITISH ZOOPHYTES.

CHAPTER I.
History of Zoophytology.

The natural productions about to occupy our attention, have
been denominated Zoophytes because, according to some phy-
siologists, they partake of the nature both of vegetables and
animals, and connect the two kingdoms of organized matter ;
or because, as others define the term, having the outward sem-
blance of sea-plants, they are yet in reality the formations of little
animals or polypes that nestle in the cells or tubes of the zoo-
phyte, to which they are organically and indissolubly connected.

Little more than a century has elapsed since the first dis-
coveries were made, on which these opinions are founded. Pre-
viously to that time zoophytes were considered the undoubted
subjects of the vegetable kingdom, naturalists being obviously
led to this allocation of them by their arborescent appearances,
in which it were vain to trace any likeness to any common ani-
mal forms,— and by their permanent fixedness to the objects
from which they grow, for zoophytes are attached by means of
a disk or tubular fibres much in the same way that marine plants
are, while the capabiHty of moving at will from place to place
was deemed to be the principal character of distinction between
the two classes of animated beings. The zoologist claimed
none of them, if we except the Actinise or animal-flowers, for
his province and study, but left them without dispute to botani-
cal writers ; and if any of these, in reference to a very few zoo-
phytes of the least arborescent character, hazarded a whispered
conjecture that they were wrongly classed, it died away in the ut-

4 HISTORY OF ZOOPIIYTOLOGY.

terance, and raised no echo to awaken further inquiry. The only
opposition to the botanical theory came from the mineralogists,
who some of them questioned the vegetability of such of these
productions as were of a hard and stony nature, contending
they were rather rocks or stones formed by the sediment and
agglutination of a submarine general compost of calcareous and
argillaceous materials, moulded into the figures of trees and
mosses by ,the motion of the waves, by crystallization, by the
incrustation of real fuci, or by some imagined vegetative power
in brute matter. But although not more — perhaps less repug-
nant to the outward sense than the opposite hypothesis, yet
the mineral theory seems at no time to have obtained very ge-
neral favour or credit ; and accordingly we find that, in the works
of Tournefort and Ray,* the leading naturalists of the age imme-
diately antecedent to the discoveries which led to the modern
doctrines, the zoophytes, whether calcareous and hard, or horny
and flexible, were arranged and described among sea-weeds and
mosses without any misgivings concerning the propriety of doing
so.

Ferrante Imperato, an apothecary in Naples, was the first
naturalist, according to M. De Blainville, distinctly to publish,
as the result of his proper observations, the animality of corals
and madrepores,-|- and he is said to have accompanied the de-

* III his " Wisdom of God in the Creation," Ray has, however, reckoned the
Lithnphijta among " inanimate mixed bodies." Of these, he says, " some have
a kind of vegetation and resemblance of plants, as corals, pori, and fungites,
Avhich grow upon the rocks like shrubs." — p. 83, duod. Lond. 182G. His opi-
nions on this point were probably unsettled ; and certainly many naturalists be-
lieved that Ovid only exj)ressed the simple fact when he wrote —
" Sic et curalium, quo primum contigit auras
" Tempore durescit ; mollis fuit herba sub undis."

Metam. lib. xv.

f Man. d'Actinol. p. \A Lamouroux on the contrary places Imperato on the

same level with Gesner, Boccone, and Shaw — none of whom had any distinct
notion of the animality of any zoophytes, and had no doubt of the vegetable
nature of almost all of them. " Les observations de ces hommes celebres, au
lieu d'eclairer les naturalistes sur cette branche interessante de la science, em-
brouillaient encore plus son etude." — Lam. Cor. Flex. Introd. p. xiv. My
copy of Imperato's work is of the edition printed at Venice in 167'2, folio. It
is written entirely in Italian, and, being ignorant of that language, I can give no
opinion of the value of its letter-press. The only copper-jjlate is a very curious
one representing the interior of Imperato's museum, which appears to have been
a very elegant and copious collection of curiosities, a servant pointing with a

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 5

scriptions of the species which fell under his notice with illus-
trative figures of considerable accuracy. His " Historia Natu-
vale," of which De Blahiville assuredly speaks in very exag-
ireratinof terms when he represents it as one of the most im-
portant works in the history of zoophytology, was prmted at
Naples in 1599 ; but although reprinted some years after-
wards (1672), the book, and the knowledge it contained, had
sunk into such complete oblivion, that when Peysso^nel, in the
year 17*27, communicated the same discovery to the Academy
of Sciences in Paris, it was received by the members of that
learned body in a manner which is sufficient to convince us that
it was entirely new to them, and exposed the author to the ob-
loquy and censure which are the usual portions of an original
discoverer.

Some time previously to the publication of Peyssonnel's dis-
covery, those who maintained that the stony zoophytes were
plants had received a strong corroboration of their opinion from
the researches of Count Marsigli, who, having detected the ex-
istence of polypes in coral and madrepore, had, under the influ-
ence of the fashionable theory, described them as being literal-
ly their blossoms or flowers.* Peyssonnel, therefore, had to
contend not only against the prejudices of the vulgar based on
appearances which spoke direct to the outward sense, but against
the actual observations of a naturalist of acknowledged merit ;
and the observations of Peyssonnel, although numerous and
unequivocal, were yet mixed up with so much that was fanciful
or erroneous, that it is not wonderful his opinion was received
with coldness and suspicion. Reaumur, to whom Peyssonnel's
communication was intrusted, even concealed the name of the

rod and directing the attention of two wondering visitors to the more remarkable
of them, while a third leans against a cabinet, and surveys,

" not without much content

" Its many singularities."
The book contains besides many wood-cuts of a miscellaneous kind, very tolera-
bly engraved for the age. The Zoophytes figured belong chiefly to the Litlio-
phyta, with some Sponges and Alcyonia. The opinions of Rumphius seem to
have been as explicitly stated as those of Impcrato, but they effected nothing —
Pall. Elench. 14, and 275.

* " Ce fut une decouverte qui fit grand bruit dans le monde naturaliste, que
celle des fleurs du corail." Reaumur — Marsigli's work was published in 1711.
His name is sometimes written MarsillL — For an account of his works see Hal-
ler, Bib. Hot. i. G30.

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

aitllior when he laid it before the Academy, with the benevo-
lent intention doubtless of shielding him from the scorn and ri-
dicule that might possibly be the lot of one who had ventured
to contradict the observations of an Italian Count, and to oppose
the established belief;* and he mimediately afterwards read,
before the same academicians, an essay of his own, in which he
opposed the theory of Peyssonnel with numerous objections,
and attempted to explain the growth of coral in accordance to
the admitted principles of vegetable physiology.f

The memoir in which Peyssonnel originally proposed his doc-
trine does not appear to have been published : the only account

1 have seen of it is contained in the essay of Reaumur just al-
luded to. He maintained that what Marsiofli had described as
the blossoms of coral, were true animals or insects analogous to
the Actiniae or sea-anemonies ; that the coral was secreted in a
fluid form by the inhabitant Actinise, and became afterwards
fixed, hard, and changed into stone ; and that all other stony
sea-plants, and even sponges, are the work of different insects,
particular to each species of these marine bodies, which la-
bour uniformly according to their nature, and as the Supreme
Being has ordered and determined. Reaumur remarks, that
these opinions were not entirely the offspring of fancy : it would
have been more candid and just had he said they were simply
the convictions of a practical naturalist, who had long and pa-
tiently studied the productions in question, in their native sites
on the coasts of France and of Barbary. Peyssonnel had seen
the polypes of coral and of the madrepores ; he recognized their
resemblance to the naked animal flowers; he had witnessed
their motions, — the extension of their tentacula, and the con-
traction and opening of the oral aperture ; he ascertained, that,
unlike flowers, they were to be found the same at all seasons ;

* " L'cstime que j'ai pour M. Peyssonnel me fit meme eviter de la nommer
pour I'auteur d'un sentiment qui ne pouvoit manquer de paroitre trop hasarde."
— Reaumur.

f Observations sur la formation du corail, et des autres productions appellees

Plantes pierreuses. Par M. de Reaumur " II prend pour une Plants I'ecorce

grossiere et sensible du corail, tres-distincte de ce que nous appellons corail, et
de plus une autre ecorce bcaucoup plus fine, et que les yeuxne distinguent point
do la vraye substance coralline qu'elle revet ; et tout le reste du corail, presque
toute la substance coralline n'est qu'imc pierre sans organisation." — Hist, de
I'Acad. Roy. des Sc. 17"27. p. 51. and more particularly his own memoir in the
same vol. p. 380.

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 7

that their corruption exhaled the odour ; their chemical ana-
lysis discovered the constituent principles of animal matters ; and
that' the stony part of them exhibited no trace of vegetable or-
ganization : and opinions deduced from such data, abstracting
his analogical reasoning of no value and little applicability, might
have been sufficient to have attracted at least some attention
had his opponent been less influential, or his own reputation
and rank somewhat greater. *

The name and doctrine of Peyssonel lay in this manner un-
known and neglected, until the remarkable experiments of
Abraham Trembley, in 1741, on the reproductive powers of the
fresh-water polypes, "f- and more especially his discovery of the
Plumatella, itself a plant-like animal production, while they ex-
torted the wonder and admiration of every one engaged in the
study of natural science, were the means of recalling to the re-
collection of Reaumur the views of Peyssonnel ; and he now
became forward in promoting such inquiries as seemed likely to
confirm and extend them. He himself appears to have repeat-
ed the experiments of Trembley, and had an opportunity of ob-
serving the habits of the Plumatella ; and, as he remarks, since
the number of species of animals which are covered by the wa-
ters of the sea is much greater than that of the fresh waters, so
it seemed natural to presume that not only would polypes be
found in the ocean, but in greater numbers and variety than in
ponds, rivers or rivulets. To ascertain the validity of this con-
jecture, and to settle if possible the discrepancy between the
observations of Marsigli and Peyssonnel, his friends Bernard

* Peyssonnel is remembered solely by this discovery. " M. Peyssonnel, dis-
posed from his youth to the study of natural history, after having qualified him-
self for the practice of medicine, applied himself mth great diligence to that sci-
ence, to which his inclination so strongly prompted him, and being a native of,
and residing at Marseilles, he had the opportunity of examining the curiosities of
the sea, which the fishermen, more especially those who search for coral, fur-
nished him with." — Phil. Trans. He was subsequently appointed Physician- Bo-
tanist to " His Most Christian Majesty" in the island of Guadalupe, and had an
opportunity of prosecuting his researches on the coast of Barbary. He is the
author of two or three communications in the Phil. Trans., of which the most
interesting is " An account of a \'isitation of the Leprous persons, in the isle of
Guadalupe" in the volume for the year 1757.

+ In the Phil. Trans, for 1742, the reader will find a full account of this dis-
covery.

8 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

de Jussieu and Guettard * proceeded, in the autumns of 1741
and 1742, to different parts of the coasts of France with the
view of examining their zoophytical productions ; and both were
soon satisfied of the truth of the animal theory. Bernard de
Jussieu in particular shewed that it was equally applicable to
many zoophytes which Peyssonnel had not examined, and whose
animalityhad not yet been suspected, viz. the flexible and delic'ate
iSertulariai, the Flustra, and the Alcyonium or Lobularia, the
latter of which seems to have excited much astonishment by the
protrusion of its thousands of polypes of a size large enough to
be seen and examined at ease with the naked eye. f

The memoir which Jussieu presented to the Academy of
Sciences in Paris is short, but characterized by great distinct-
ness and precision in the detail of his observations, and illus-
trated with excellent figures ; — his aim being evidently not to
entrap our blind assent by a declamatory display of the new
wonders opened up in science, but to prove his conclusion to
be the true one in the eye of reason and sobriety. He limits
his descriptions and remarks to four species, viz. Alcyonium di-
gitatum, Tubularia indivisa, Flustra foliacea, and Cellepora
pumicosa, which seem to have been selected as examples of the
more remarkable tribes, for it is evident that he had examined
manymore, buthisobservationson them were reserved for another
memoir which, I believe, was never written. X — Reaumur's ad-

Lamouroux speaks highly of the labours of this naturalist, whose attention

seems to have been chiefly directed to fossil polypidoms and to sponges Corall.

Flex. Introd. p. xvii. See also Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 341.

f E.vimen de quelques productions marines qui ont ete mises au nombre des
Plantes, et qui sont I'ouvrage d'une sorte d'Insectes de mer. Par. M. Bernard
de Jussieu. J 4th Nov. 1742. Published in 1745 See Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 281.

I That Jussieu had ascertained the animality of the Sertulariadte is, I think,
indisputable from the following passage. " II s'en presentoit ensuite quantite
de celles qu'on appelle Corallines, les unes pierreuses dans lesquelles je ne se-
marquai rien, et les auti'es dont les tiges et les branches, et ce qiu passoit pour
feuilles, etoient d'une apparence membraneuse, dans lesquelles je decouvris que
ce qu'on y prenoit pour feuilles disposees alternativement, ou dans un sens op-
pose, n'etoit autre chose que de petits tuyaux contenant chacun un petit insecte."
— Mem. de I'Acad. Roy. des Be. an. 1742. p. 292 Reaumur is still more ex-
plicit. : " Apres avoir observe dans I'eau meme de la mer plusieurs especes deces
productions si Men conformees a la maniere des plantes, il vit sortir des bouts de
toutes leurs bi'anches et de tous leurs noeuds, ou de toutes leurs articulations,
dc petits animaux qui, commeles polypes a panache d'eau douce, se donnoient
tantot pins, tantot moins de mouvemcnt, qui coinme ceux-ci s't'panouissoient en

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 9

vocacy of the new doctrine was in a more popular style, but not
the less excellent. He gave a short exposition of the ascertained
facts, — reviewed with the clearness of an eye-witness the dis-
coveries of Trembley, — pointed out their relations to the ex-
periments of Jussieu and Guettard, and how they mutually lent
and borrowed strength, — palliated and explained away his for-
mer opposition to Peyssonnel, — and declared his complete faith
in the animality of Zoophytes, and his conviction that a nume-
rous list of productions hitherto unexamined would be found to
be of the same nature. " All that we have said," he thus con-
cludes, " of the polypes of the sea, is merely a sort of adver-
tisement which, however, cannot fail to produce the effect which
we promise ourselves from it : it will direct undoubtedly the
curiosity of naturalists who reside by the sea to insects so worthy
of being better known. They will seek out the different species ;
they will delight to describe to us the varieties presented in
their forms never but remarkable ; they will study the figure
and disposition of the cells of the various species, their manner
of growth and reproduction and wherewithal they are nourished ;
they will in short, place in a clear light every thing that has
reference to the different polypidoms and their formation, so
that a department of natural history, so interesting, so new, and
as yet only sketched in outline, may be rendered as perfect as
it merits to be." *

The appeal, eloquent as it was and from one having great
influence, was however made in vain ; for whether from the in-
veteracy of habit and our fondness of opinions long cherished,
or from the fewness of the published observations whence the
general conclusion was drawn, it seems certain that the new doc-

ccrtains temps, et qiii dans d'autres rentroient en entier dans leur petite cellide,
hors de laquelle leur partie posterieure ne se tiouvoit jamais. Enfin, il (B. de
Jussieu) reconnut que plusieurs espeees de ces corps, dont chacun avoit I'ex-
terieur d'une tres-belle plante, n'etoient que des assemblages d'un nombre pro-
digieiLx de cellules de polypes ; en un mot, que plusieurs de ces productions de
la mer, que tous les botanistes que les ont decrites ont prises"pour des plantes
et ont fait representer comme telles avec complaisance, n'etoient que des poly-
piers.'" — Preface, Vol. vi. p. 71, 72. See also Amoenitates Aradeinicse, Vol. i.
p. 185, for an enumeration of the species of Sertularia, &c., which Jussieu had
examined, and considered to be animal productions. His account, however, of
the animal of the Sertularia? is altogether erroneous.

" Memoires pour servir a I'histoire des Insectes, Tome sixieme, Paris, 1742.
Quarto. Preface, from p. 68 to p. 80.

10 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

trines were everywhere received with doubts and suspicion, and
beyond the immediate sphere of the Parisian academy, excited
apparently so Httle interest, that no one was induced to enter
into a practical examination of them. Donati indeed shortly
after gave a minute and accurate description of the coral and its
polypes, and a somewhat less detailed one of the madrepores,
but his phraseology being botanical and his opinions unformed,*
his researches were of little immediate service to the cause of
the zoologists, and perhaps rather tended to support the errone-
ous hypothesis which they were combating.f

Peyssonnel was still living, and it was impossible that this dis-
cussion should not interest him. Accordingly we find that in 1751,
he transmitted to the Royal Society of London a manuscript
treatise on coral and other marine productions, J of which Dr
Watson has given a review in the 47th volume of its Transac-
tions, pubhshed in 1753. The treatise was sent to the English
society, because " that in France some lovers of natural history
do attribute and even appropriate to themselves his labours and
his discoveries, of which they have had the communication ;" —
a charge probably directed against Reaumur, but which the con-
duct of that illustrious man, so far as appears, did not warrant.
The treatise contains upwards of 400 quarto pages, and is the

Shortly after this, however, he made other observations which convinced
him of the animality of coral. He says—" I am now of opinion, that coral is
nothing else than a real animal, which has a very great number of heads. I consider
the polypes of coral as the heads of the animal. This animal has a bone rami-
fied in the shape of a shrub. This bone is covered with a kind of flesh, which
is the flesh of the animal. My observations have discovered to me several ana-
logies between the animals of kinds approaching to this. There are, for in-
stance, Keratophyta, which do not diff-er from coral, except in the bone, or part
that forms the prop of the animal. In the coral it is testaceous, and in the
Keratophyta it is horny. "—Phil. Trans. (1757) abridg. xi. p. 83.

t New Discoveries relating to the History of Coral, by Dr Vitaliano Donati.
Translated from the French, by Tho. Stack, M. D. F. R. S. (Feb. 7, 1750.)—
Phil. Trans. Vol. xlvii. p. 95. Haller characterizes the original as " nobile opus,
ex proprio labcre natum."— Bib. Bot. ii. 400.

f Traite du corail, contcnant les nouvellcs decouvertes, qu'on a fait sur le
corail, les pores, madrepores, scharras, litophitons, eponges, et autres corps et
productions, que la mer fom-nit, pour servir a I'histoire naturelle de la mer.
By the Sieur de Peyssonnel, M. D. Correspondent of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Paris, of that of Montpelier, and of that of Belles Lettres at Mar-
seilles. This treatise was never published.

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 11

result of the observations of above thirty years, but we find in it
no facts in support of his theory additional to those already men-
tioned, for the greater portion of it is occupied with many de-
tails on the medical uses and other applications of coral which
have no relation to the question at issue. It seems at first to
have excited considerable attention amongf the members of the
Royal Society, but Peyssonnel's endeavours were doomed ever
to be unfortunate, for whatever favour his theory was likely to
receive here was nipt in the bud by the opposition of Dr Par-
sons, a naturalist of considei'able eminence, and an active mem-
ber of the society. The analysis of Peyssonnel's treatise was
read in May 1752, and in June of the same year, Dr Parsons
read his answer,* which savours much of the supercilious dog-
matism of a sceptical philosophy. He does not pretend that he
had tested the doctrine of Peyssonnel by any experiments or
observations, nor does he question his veracity, but he chose to
consider the animals observed by Peyssonnel in the coral and
madrepores as merely accidental settlers which had nothing to do
with their growth, — occupants of mansions prepared for them by
more active entities, — there being no " seeming power, propor-
tion, and stability" in the polypes to render them capable of per-
forming such works as they were thought to have done. " And
indeed it would seem to me," says the learned doctor, " much
more difficult to conceive, that so fine an arrangement of parts,
such masses as these bodies consist of, and such reo'ular ramifi-
cations in some, and such well-contrived organs to serve for ve-
getation in others, should be the operations of little, poor, help-
less, jelly-like animals, rather than the work of more sure vege-
tation, which carries on the growth of the tallest and largest
trees with the same natural ease and influence, as the minutest
plant."

The mineral theory also found at this period its latest advo-
cate. Henry Baker, during his numerous microscopical enqui-
ries, had become familiar with the beautiful and regular " ve-
getations" which many salts and earths assume in their crystal-

* A Letter from James Parsons, M. D. F. R. S. to the Rev. Mr Birch, Seer.
R. S. concerning the Formation of Corals, Corallines, &c. For an account of
Dr Parson's writings see Hall. Bib. Bot. ii. 340 ; and there is a short biogra-
phical notice of him in Phil. Trans, abridg. viii. 692.

12 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

lizations from a fluid state, and, seeing nothing more uniform or
beautiful in the stony corals and corallines, he was naturally led
to give an easy assent to that doctrine which taught that these
were all the result of similar depositions. The new opinions
might be true or not when restricted to the pliant horny coral-
lines, (though he inclined to believe in their vegetable origin,)
but it was unnecessary to call in the agency of animalcules to
explain the formation of the hard stony kinds, which indeed
seemed beyond the power of an almost gelatinous animalcule to
excrete and laborate. Nor would he believe these to be sea-
plants, but rather of a mineral nature and origin. " The rocks
in the sea on which these corals are produced," he says, " are
undoubtedly replete with mineral salts, some whereof near their
surface, being dissolved by the sea-water, must consequently sa-
turate with their saline particles the water round them to a small
distance, where blending with the stony matter with which sea-
water always abounds, little masses will be constituted here and
there and affixed to the rocks. Such adhering masses may be
termed roots .- which roots attracting the saline and stony par-
ticles, according to certain laws in nature, may produce branch-
ed or other figures, and increase gradually by an apposition of
particles ; becoming thicker near the bottom where the saline
matter is more abounding, but tapering or diminishing toward
the extremities, where the mineral salts must be fewer, in pro-
portion to their distance from the rock whence they originally
proceed. And the different proportions of mineral saline par-
ticles, of the stony or other matter wherewith they are blended,
and of marine salt, which must have a considerable share in
such formations, may occasion all the variety we see. Nor does
it seem more difficult to imagine that the radiated, starry, or
cellular figures along the sides of these corals, or at the extre-
mities of their branches, may derive their production from salts
incorporated with stony matter, than that the curious delinea-
tions and appearances of minute shrubs and mosses on slates,
stones, &c. are owing to the shootings of salts intermixt with
mineral particles : and yet these are generally allowed to be the
work of mineral steams or exhalations; by which must, I think,
be meant the finest particles of some metal or mineral incorpo-
rated with and brought into action by a volatile penetrating

HISTORY OF ZOOPIIYTOLOGY. 13

acid, which carrvino; them alono- witli it into the fissures at least,
if not into the sohd substance of such stones or slates, there de-
termines them to shoot into these elegant branchings ; after the
same manner, and frequently in the same figures, as the par-
ticles of merq^u'y, copper, &c. are disposed and brought together
by the salts in aqua fortis."*

But the progress of truth, although it may be delayed by op-
position, cannot be permanently arrested. The converts to the
new doctrines were indeed few, but much had been done to fa-
cilitate their future reception, for the slumber of prejudice had
been broken, the hold of the ancient opinions on the affections
had been loosened, and men no longer startled into scepticism
when they heard of animals that in their productions mimicked
the most beautiful and delicate vegetable forms, f The mind
of naturalists was thus in some measure prepared for the change
on the very eve of being effected by the labours and assiduity
of a member of that very society which had lately listened, with
apparent approbation, to the reveries of Dr Parsons.

John Ellis — the name of the individual alluded to — was a
merchant in London, who devoted his leisure to the study of
natural history, in which he attained so considerable knowledge
as to gain easy access to the Royal Society, and the acquain-
tance and correspondence of the most celebrated naturalists of
his time. He seems to have attached himself more particular-
ly to the economical department of botany, and seized every
opportunity to introduce foreign plants to our gardens, especial-
ly such as were remarkable from furnishing any material em-
ployed in the arts and manufactures ; and he was equally solici-
tous to acquire and diffuse accurate information relative to any
natural productions which might be rendered subservient to
the necessities or comforts of mankind. He was fond also of
amusing himself in making imitations of landscapes by the cu-
rious and skilful disposition of delicate sea-weed and corallines

* Employment for the Microscope, p. 218-20. Lond. 1753.

f " For it is not because an'opinion is true, that others mil therefore adopt it.
It must at the same time be congruous with our other impressions, and admit
of being dovetailed into them, or it wUl be rejected, for it is judged of by its
conformity to the previous acquisitions, and is disliked and coudemned if incom-
patible with them." — Turner, Sac. Hist, of the World, Vol. ii. p. 19.

14 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

on paper : and it was this amusement that directed his enquiries
into the nature of the latter, for, attracted by their beauty and
neatness, he was induced to examine them minutely with the
microscope, by the aid of which he immediately perceived " that
they differed not less from each other, in respect to their form,
than they did in regard to their texture ; and that, in many of
them, this texture was such, as seemed to indicate their being
more of an animal, than vegetable nature." These " suspi-
cions," as he modestly terms them, were communicated to the
Royal Society in June 1752; and, encouraged by some of the
members, he prosecuted this enquiry with such ardour, and care,
and sagacity, that in August of the same year, he had fully
convinced himself " that these apparent plants were ramified
animals, in their proper skins or cases, not locomotive, but fixed
to shells of oysters, mussels, &c. and to Fucus's."*

Ellis, however, was not forward to pubhsh his discovery : he
waited further opportunities to confirm the accuracy of his first
observations, and to institute other experiments to remove what-
ever appeared hostile to the doctrine, which at length he fully
explained to the members of the Royal Society in a paper read
before them in June 1754: and it was made more generally
known in the following year by the publication of his " Essay
towards a natural history of the Corallines, and other marine
productions of the like kind, commonly found on the coasts of
Great Britain and Ireland ;"— a work so complete and accurate
that it remains an unscarred monument of his well-earned re-
See the Introduction to his Essay on the Corallines of Great Britain. It
is from this work, and from the valuable " Selection of the Correspondence of
Liimffius, and other naturalists, from the original manuscripts, by Sir James Ed-
ward Smith/' 2 vols, 8vo. Lond. 1821, that I derive my account of Ellis's opi-

nions. Sir J. E. Smith commences his memoir by saying " John Ellis, F. R. S.,

iUustrious for his discover?/ and complete demonstration of the animal na-
ture of Corals and Corallines, was a native of Ireland." We have seen that he
has no claim to this discovery, though he himself seems to have thought so, and
never makes mention of his predecessors in the same field. A Professor Butt-
ner at Gottingen, who had been in England, and become acquainted with Ellis,
who calls him an " excellent botanist," unhesitatingly claimed Ellis's discoveries
for his own, but a more bare-faced literary theft has not been recorded, and its
detection has rendered the name of the German Professor infamous— Lin. Cor-
resp. Vol. i. p. 170 and 179,— For a list of Ellis's writings the reader may con-
sult Hall. Bib. Bot ii. 433, and the Introd. to Soland. Zooph. p. viii.

HISTORY OF ZOOPIIYTOLOGY. 15

putation as a philosophical inquirer, and is even to this day the
principal source of our knowledge in this department of natural
history. In several essays presented subsequently to the Royal
Society, and published in their Transactions, he continued to
illustrate and extend his opinions, and defended them so suc-
cessfully against his opponents, that they soon came to be very
generally adopted.

There was nothing unformed nor mystical in Ellis's opinion.
Certain marine productions which, under the names of Litho-
phyta and Keratophyta, had been arranged among vegetables,
and were still very generally believed to be so, he maintained
and proved with a most satisfactory fulness of evidence, to be
entirely of an animal nature — the tenements and products of
animals similar in many respects to the naked fresh-water polype.
By examining them, in a living state, through an ordinary mi-
croscope, he saw these polypes in the denticles or cells of the
zoophyte ; he witnessed them display their tentacula for the cap-
ture of their prey, — their varied actions and sensibility to ex-
ternal impressions,^ — and their mode of propagation ; he saw
further that the little creatures were organically connected with
the cells and could not remove from them, and that although
each cell was appropriated to a single individual, yet was this
united " by a tender thready line to the fleshy part that occu-
pies the middle of the whole coralline,"" and in this manner con-
nected with all the individuals of that coralline. The conclu-
sion was irresistible — the presumed plant was the skin or cover-
ing of a sort of miniature hydra, — a conclusion which Ellis
strengthened by an examination of the covering separately,
which, he said, was as much an animal structure as the nails or
horns of beasts, or the shell of the tortoise, for it differs from
" sea-plants in texture, as well as hardness, and likewise in their
chemical productions. For sea-plants, properly so called, such
as the Algae, Fuci, &c. afford in distillation little or no traces
of a volatile salt : whereas all the corallines afford a considerable
quantity ; and in burning yield a smell somewhat resembling that
of burnt horn, and other animal substances ; which of itself is a
proof that this class of bodies, though it has the vegetable form,
yet is not entirely of a vegetable nature." *

• Dr Good is in error when he states that the ammoniacal smell from burnt

16 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

Ellis 'taught no novel doctrine, but he gave it fixidity and
currency ; and he moreover applied it to those very zoophytes
which possessed the vegetable appearance in the most perfec-
tion, many of which he was the first to notice, and which he il-
lustrated with a series of figures of unequalled accuracy. * He
rarely went beyond the mere statement of the facts witnessed,
or what seemed an unavoidable inference from them ; but, per-
haps, he deserted his usual caution when, from analogy princi-
pally, he asserted that the articulated calcareous corallines (Co-
rallina, Lin.) and sponges, of a very different structure from
coral, madrepore, or the horny corallines, were also like them,
manifestly the places of abode of diflferent species of polypes.
In the former ( Corallina) he had indeed detected some slender
fibres which, it was presumed, might be parts of polypes, but
this observation he was never able to confirm, and it was rather
because of the porous structure of the corallines, than from any
thing else, that he inferred the existence of polypes in them, —
a structure which he had examined with minute accuracy, and
shown to be essentially different from any known vegetable tis-
sue, — and, secondly, because of their chemical constituents, of
which he procured an accurate analysis to be made. — With re-
gard to the Sponges, Ellis, as Peyssonnel had previously done,
supposed at first that the regular holes observable in dry speci-
mens, strongly indicated their being once filled with animals;
but when after repeated examinations of recent sponge, he could
detect none, this conjecture was abandoned, and so thoroughly

zoophytes was the principal fact for placing them in the animal kingdom. — Book
of Nature, i. 175 and 210.

* As mentioned above, Bernard de Jussieu knew that the Sertulariadse — the
zoophytes here alluded to — were animal productions, but no detailed account of
his observations seems ever to have been published. Trembley had made the
same discovery. Dr Watson, in his account of Peyssonnel's treatise in 1752,
tells us that Mr Trembley shewed him, " at the late excellent Duke of Rich-
mond's" the small white polypes of the Corallina minus ramosa alterna vice den-
ticulata of Ray, " exactly in form resembling the fresh-water polype, but infinite-
ly less." " When the water was still, these animals came forth, and moved their
claws in search of their prey in various directions ; but, upon the least motion
of the glass, they instantly disappeared." P. 463 — Linnseus, however, in refer-
ence to the observations made previous to Ellis, says they are " inchoate, non
ad pleimm confectae, et desiderentur adhuc quam plurima, quae dies forte reve-
labit."— Amoen. Acad. Vol. i. p. 186.

I

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 17

was he afterwards satisfied of the non-existence of animalcules,
that he combated the opinion of those who maintained the con-
trary, pointing out where the error lay in mistaking small in-
sects which had crept into the sponge in search of food or shel-
ter for the real inhabitants and fabricators of the zoophyte. Yet
not the less was Ellis convinced of its animality ; — its chemical
constituents and its structure were to him conclusive proofs of
this fact, particularly when added to the signs of irritability he
saw them exhibit when in a fresh state. " I am persuaded,"
he writes to Linnaeus, " thejihroi intertextce of sponges are only
the tendons that enclose a gelatinous substance, which is the
flesh of the sponge. Mr Solander and I have seen the holes
or sphincters in some of our sponges taken out of the sea, open
and shut while they were kept in sea- water ; but discovered no
animal like a polype, as in the Alcyonium manus mortui." And
again — " I attended last summer in pursuit of the animals in
sponges, but believe me there are none : but the whole is an ani-
mal, and the water passes in a stream through the holes, to and
fro, in each papilla."*

When Ellis published these discoveries, which form in fact
an epoch in the history of natural science,-}- Linnaeus was in the

• Lin. Corresp. Vol. i. p. 161 and p. 163. in a subsequent letter Ellis explains
himself more fully. " I am now looking into the nature of sponges, and think by
dissecting and comparing them with what I have seen recent, and with the Alcy-
onium manus mortua, that I can plainly see how they grow ; without trusting to
Peyssonell's account of them, which is printed in our Philosophical Transac-
tions, wherein he pretends to tell you, that he takes the anirn;d out of them, that
forms them ; and that he put it into them, and it crept about through the mean-
ders of the sponge. This kind of insect, which harbours in sponges, I have
seen ; but sponges have no such animals to give them life, and to form them.
Their mouths are open tubes all over their surfaces, not furnished, like the tubes
of the Alcyonium manus mortua, with polype-like mouths or suckers. With
their mouths they draw in and send out the water ; they can contract and dilate
them at will, and the Count Marsigli has (though he thought them plants) con-
firmed me in my opinion, that this is their manner of feeding. If you observe
what he has wrote on sponges in his Histoire de la Mer, and the observations he
has made on the Systole and Diastole of these holes in Sponges, during the time
they are full of water, you will be of my opinion. Take a lobe of the officinal
sponge, and cut it through perpendicularly and horizontally, and you will observe
how near the disposition of the tubes are to the figure I have given of the sec-
tions of the Alcyonium manus mortua in my plate of the Sea-Pens."-^Lin.
Corresp. Vol. i. p. 79-80.
f The Royal Society adjudged to Ellis the Copley medal, " as the most

B

18 HISTORY or ZOOPIIYTOLOGY.

zenith of his reputation,— the "prince of naturahsts," as his
followers loved to style him, — from whose decision on all disput-
ed points in natural history, there was scarcely an admissible
appeal. And Linnaeus almost merited this distinction, for he
was a man not only of superior capacity and acquirements, of
great sagacity, ready apprehension, and fruitful fancy, but he
was also of a candid and liberal disposition ; and the ingenious
labours of Ellis received from him great and merited commen-
dation. He had previously, in the belief that lime was never
formed but by animals, placed the Lithophyta in the animal
kingdom ; and he now adopted the opinions of Ellis so far as
to include in it the horny and flexible polypidoms also, but at
the same time he broached the conjecture, for it deserves no
higher praise, that these were really intermediate between the
animal and vegetable kingdoms, so that it could not be said
they properly belong to either. The animalcules of the Litho-
phyta, like the testaceous tribes, he said, fabricated their own
calcareous polypidom, forming the whole mass into tubes, each
ending on the surface in pores or cells, where alone the animal
seems to dwell ;* but the polypes of the proper Zoophyta, so
far from constructing their plant-like polypidoms, were, on the
contrary, the productions or efflorescences of it, f just as the
flowers do not make the herb or tree but are the results of the
vegetative life proceeding to perfection. Polypes, according to
this fancy, bore the same relation to their polypidom that flowers
do to the trunk and branches of the tree ; both grew by vege-

public mark that the Council can give of their high sense of the great accession
which natural knowledge has received from your most ingenious and accurate
investigations." The medal was delivered to him, Nov. 30, 1768, by Sir John
Pringle, the President — Soland. Zooph. Introd. p. xi. See also Swainson's
" Discourse on the Study of Nat. History," p. 38-9.

* Lithophyta — " animalia moUusca, composita. Corallium calcareum, fixum,
quod inffidificarunt animalia aflSxa." — Syst. 1270.

f Zoophyta — " animalia composita, efflorescentia. Stirps vegetans, meta-
morphosi transiens in florens Animal."— Syst. 1287. " Zoophyta non sunt, uti
Lithophyta, auctores suae testte ; sed Testa ipsorum ; sunt enim corpora (uti
flores) imprimis generationis organa, adjectis nonnullis oris motusque instru-

mentis, ut motum, quern extrinsecus non habent, a se ipsis obtineant." Syst.

Nat. edit. 10. 799. When Berkenhout translates the first of these delinitions

" stems vegetating and changing into animals j" Synop. i. 15, he certainly de-
parts, if not from the letter, yet from the meaning of Linnaeus.

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. J 9

tation, but while the one evolved from the extremities blossoms
which shrunk not under external irritations and were therefore
properly flowers, — the other put forth flowers which, because
they exhibited every sign of animality, were therefore with reason
considered animals. " Zoophyta," he writes to Ellis, " are con-
structed very differently, living by a mere vegetable life, and
are increased every year under their bark, like trees, as appears
from the annual rings in a section of the trunk of a Gorgonia.
They are therefore vegetables, with flowers like small animals,
which you have most beautifully delineated. All submarine
plants are nourished by pores, not by roots, as we learn from
Fuci. As zoophytes are, many of them, covered with a stony
coat, the Creator has been pleased that they should receive
nourishment by their naked flowers. He has therefore furnish-
ed each with a pore, which we call a mouth. All living beings
enjoy some motion. The zoophytes mostly live in the perfectly
undisturbed abyss of the ocean. They cannot therefore par-
take of that motion, which trees and herbs receive from the agi-
tation of the air. Hence the Creator has granted them a ner-
vous system, that they may spontaneously move at pleasure.
Their lower part becomes hardened and dead, like the solid
wood of a tree. The surface, under the bark, is every year fur-
nished with a new living layer, as in the vegetable kingdom.
Thus they grow and increase ; and may even be truly called ve-
getables, as having flowers, producing capsules, &c. Yet as they
are endowed with sensation, and voluntary motion, they must be
called, as they are, animals ; for animals differ from plants mere-
ly in having a sentient nervous system, with voluntary motion;
nor are there any other limits between the two. Those there-
fore who esteem these animalcules to be distinct from their stalk,
in my opinion, founded on observation, deceive and are de-
ceived."*

There was something in this hypothesis peculiarly captivating
to an imaginative mind, and few poets have possessed a richer
fancy than Linnaeus. He seems to have ever fondly cherished
the opinion, for in his curious Diary, in which he has enumerat-
ed with much complacency all his works and merits, it is men-
tioned as one of his principal recommendations to the respect

* Lin. Corresp. Vol. i. p. 151-2.

20 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

of posterity. " Linne," he says, " decided that they (zoophytes)
were between vegetables and animals : vegetables with re-
spect to their stems, and animals with respect to their flores-
cence. This idea is still entertained."* Before we notice the
manner of its reception by Ellis, we may take a short review of
the writings of some other of the opponents of the latter natu-
ralist.

Ellis had indeed effected a revolution in the opinions of scien-
tific men, but there were some even of considerable reputation
who either wavered between the old and new, or continued to
hold the notions of their fathers,f which, however, very few
ventured to maintain publicly. Of these the only one who
merits our particular notice is Dr Job Baster of Zurichsee in
Zealand, who seems to have been very imperfectly qualified for
the task he had undertaken. At first he boldly asserted the vege-
tability of all zoophytes, attempted to prove that the Sertulari^
were really articulated Confervse, and that the little animals ob-
served on them were merely parasites, which had as little to do
with the formation of the object they rested on, as the maggots
in a mushroom had to do with its moonlioht growth. These
the results of his actual observation were set forth in a tone of
arrogance calculated to wound the feelings and good fame of
Ellis, nor is this conduct to be wondered at, for ignorance is
usually as unfeeling as she is proverbially confident in her as-
sertions, and the Dutch naturalist was truly very ignorant of all
relating to the subject he attempted to elucidate. Unskilled in
marine botany he actually mistook the objects of the enquiry,
and instead of Sertulariae set himself to examine true Confervae,
— a fact which the drawings illustrative of his paper demonstrate.
His further experiments made him fully aware of this ridiculous
error ; and having become better acquainted with his subject,

Pulteney's General view of the Writings of Linnaeus, by Dr Maton, p. 560.
Lond. 1805.

t Count Ginanni was one of these, and had the hardihood to question the
accuracy of the observations of even Jussieu — How far he was competent to
observe himself will be made apparent to the zoophytologist by the following
extract : — " Loco polyiiorum Bernardi de Jussieu, papillas septem glandulis con-
sitas repcrit, et mucum pulat esse, quern vocant cornua : ex papillis vero pres-
sisaqua, demde lac pull ulat, eiedemque ad corticem inseparabili nexu adherent."
—Hall. Bib. Bot. ii, 444.

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 21

he appears to have been puzzled what to make of zoophytes ;
they were certainly not sea-weeds, — and it were too humihating
to adopt a once rejected theory, — when happily the Systema
Naturae came to his aid, and he instantly adopted with zeal the
vegeto-animal fancy, because, he says, it illustrated in a wonder-
ful manner other things which were previously obscure and in-
comprehensible, and because it was in perfect keeping with the
doctrine which taught that animated beings were a series of links
constituting one long chain that could not be broken without
violation to the continuity of organization, — the different species
being so closely connected on this side and that, that neither
sense nor imagination can detect the line which separates one
from the other. It must be allowed that in Baster the doctrine
of Linnseus has found its best advocate. He tells us that in
zoophytes there are too many signs of a perfect vegetation to
permit us to believe that they can owe their origin to animal-
cules so minute as to require a microscope to see them, and the
great simplicity of whose organization altogether unfits them for
perfecting such works : and as from the law of continuity indi-
cated above it was reasonable to presume the existence of beings
in which the distinctions between animals and plants should meet
and amalgamate, so by a comparison of their definitions it may
be made obvious that these distinctions disappear in zoophytes.
A plant is an organized body without sense or spontaneous mo-
tion, adhering by means of a root to some foreign substance
whence it derives the material of its life and increase : an ani-
mal, on the contrary, is an organized body endowed with sen-
sation and perception, which can, of its own free will, make cer-
tain movements peculiar to itself. Like the plant, zoophytes
grow fixed by a root ; and yet at the same time they are ani-
mals, for they show when touched that they feel by some mo-
tion, and when they perceive food proper for them they seize
and devour it by the action of certain members.

Having in this manner commended the theory to our favour,
and shown its reasonableness and consonance to nature, Baster
goes on to explain the manner in which he conceives his ex-
periments prove that the Sertulariadse or flexible corallines grow.
The ova or seeds of these zoophytes, he asserts, pullulate from
the body of the mother in the likeness of tender articulations

22 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

or new branches, which fall off on maturity, and adhere to any
stone, shell, or other hard body, by which they are protected
until the young are excluded. Now the outer coat of this egg
or seed is of a vegetable nature, and it throws out from the sides
in the manner of other seeds, certain little roots by means of
which it remains permanently attached ; but the internal part
of the egg or seed is anhnal, and growing simultaneously with
its vegetable covering, it is dispersed through all the ramifica-
tions and occupies their hollow interior, being developed into
polypes in the lateral denticles and extreme cells. Such was
the deduction he came to from observations made on the growth
more especially of the Sertularia abietina, which he had kept
alive for nearlv four months in a vessel of sea water. When
a new part was formed, there first emerged from the stem a mi-
nute tubular joint, which rose to four, five, or even eight lines
in height: after some days some lesser buds, regularly dispos-
ed in an alternate manner, were seen on the sides of this branch,
which in the course of four or six days grew into cells contain-
ing perfect polypes. Hence it is obvious to Baster that the
stem of this and similar zoophytes grows in thickness and length
as plants do, and that the medullary pith is animal, which it is
not wonderful should assume a dendroidal form, when we see
zinc and quicksilver do the same by the mere force of affinity.
Trembley had already pronounced the cells of the fresh-water
zoophytes (Plumatella) to be not the work of the polypes, but
rather compartments in which they concealed a part of their
body ; and this fact, added to those already given, makes it cer-
tain that the animalcules of the Sertulariadse are entirely pas-
sive, and have no more to do with their polypidoms than the
flower has with the increase and growth of the herb.*

There is some ambiguity in Easterns statement of his opinions,
for it is not very obvious whether he believed the new formed
branchlets to be themselves the eggs or seeds, or whether they
only contained the eggs ; but be this as it may, it appears scarce-
ly doubtful that he knew nothing of the true ova and their cu-
rious ovaries. The phenomena observed in the production of
new parts are correctly stated, but nothing but wilful prejudice

* Phil. Tniiis. Vol. Hi. p. lOe-118 For Baster's woiks see Hall. Bib. Bot.

i. 4G8.

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 23

could blind him to the fallacy of the consequent reasoning.
The analogy attempted to be drawn between the eggs of zoo-
phytes and the seeds of plants has no existence, for every tyro
knows well that the coat or skin of a seed in no instance ever
pushes forth radical fibres, or ever exhibits any sign of vegeta-
tion ; — it is a dead part which is cast off or corrupts, and exerts
no further influence on vegetation tlian as a protection to the
cotyledons and embryo which it invests, so that if it is true that
the coat of the ova of zoophytes is the source of their vegetative
part, as Baster says, that coat must be of a very different na-
ture from the skin of seeds. It would have been better to have
compared the oviform bodies of the zoophyte with the buds of
the tree, and he might have disported with this fancy to some
effect, for there are many analogical resemblances, and the in-
applicability of the illustration is not so very plain. Still it is
inapplicable, for buds grow from the absorption of water and in-
organic matter which is diffused and assimilated by means of a
certain determinate organization, while the covering of zoophy-
tes receives no increase except through the medium of its poly-
pes; — it has no sap-vessels, no spiral tubes, no cellular paren-
chyma^ no absorbent roots, no pores and spiracles on the sur-
face, so that all its material must be derived from an internal
source ; and to say that a body vegetates when the nutriment is
received and assimilated in a different manner, and by a differ-
ent structure from what it is in plants, and is productive in its
assimilation of opposite principles, is to use terms in so vague a
sense as would be intolerable in any science.

Neither the authority of Linnaeus, nor the imperfect experi-
ments of Baster, had any effect on Ellis, who steadily opposed
this vegeto-animal doctrine, and whose superior knowledge made
it easy for him to detect and point out the erroneousness of the
observations on which it principally rested. In reference to the
opinion itself he wrote to Linnaeus, — " artful people may puzzle
the vulgar, and tell us that the more hairy a man is, and the
longer his nails grow, he is more of a vegetable than a man who
shaves his hair or cuts his nails ;* that frogs bud like trees,

* Boliadsfh in answer to those who believed that the Pennatulae were plants
uses the same argument — De Anim. Mar. p. 123. This author, who wrote in
] 761, was a strenuous advocate for the unmixed animality of zoophytes.

24 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

when they are tadpoles ; and caterpillars blossom into butter-
flies. These are pretty rhapsodies for a Bonnet. Though
there are different manners of growth in the different parts of
the same animal, which the world has long been acquainted
with, why should we endeavour to confound the ideas of vege-
table and animal substances, in the minds of the people that we
would willingly instruct in these matters ?"* And in a subse-
quent letter he repeats, " I cannot reconcile myself to vegeta-
ting animals : the introduction of the doctrine of this mixed
kind of life will only confuse our ideas of nature. We have not
proof sufficient to determine it ; and I am averse to hypo-
theses."-f-

Pallas, who published at this period an admirable history of
zoophytes, :{: was also the advocate of the Linnaean doctrine,
but he adduced no other facts than those furnished by Baster
in its aid, — setting, however, in bolder relief, the argument de-
rived from its accordance with the hypothesis of a continuous
series in the structure of organized beings, which, it was for
long a point of orthodoxy to believe, formed a chain " in linked
sweetness long drawn out," graduating insensibly from man to
the monad, — as Bonnet maintained ; or branching off into les-
ser series after the manner of a tree, — a simile suggested by
Pallas himself as more correctly representing the " System
of Nature." § He also adopted the opinion of Baster, who
in this respect continued in opposition to Linnseus, that the true
corallines ( Corallina) were entirely of a vegetable nature, and
his arguments on this head may be summed up as follows : In
external appearance and structure a few corallines resemble
some fuci, and many of them are like confervse ; they differ
from other zoophytes in chemical composition, for, on being
burned, they emit the smell of vegetable matter, neither do they
contain a volatile salt or animal oil ; the pores observable in
their calcareous portion are too small to be the habitations of po-

* Lin. Conesp. Vol. i. p. 226. f Ilji'l- P- 260.

^ " Printeps in hac classe opus." — Hall. Bib. Bot. ii, 566
§ " Didicimus in Zoophytis, sic jure vocandis, vcgetabilem natunun cum ani-
mali ita misceri, iit veie anceps et dubia pa&sim sit." &c. Elenc. ^ooph. Prajf.
viii. The Introduction to tlie work is beaded. " Dc zoopliytoruin inttrmedia
iiatura et inventione." His ideas of the Natural System are given in an inte-
resting passage at p. 23-4, which is too long for quotation in this place.

HrSTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 25

lypes, and similar pores can bo detected on fuci ; no polypes
nor any visible token of life could be discovered by Jussieu in
any coralline, a species of which, moreover, a Mr Meese had
found growing upon a heath in Friesland ; and lastly, the
fructification of corallines is very similar to that of fuci and
confervas.

Were these the deductions of correct observation and expe-
riment they would unquestionably have been conclusive, but
some of them were already known to be contrary to the fact,
and the others were weakened with doubts and uncertainties.
Ellis, conscious of his superior knowledge both of marine botany
and zoophytology, put forth an answer to this attack which is
remarkable for clear arrangement, and for candid and honour-
able bearing to his opponent, who had scarcely deserved this at
his hand. * Having shewn that the presumed coralline which
Pallas had compared to a fucus or sea-weed, was in fact a fucus,
Ellis proceeded to prove how widely different every coralline
was in structure and texture from any confervae ; and that the
former, contrary to Pallas's assertion, not only gave out when
burned " an offensive smell like that of burnt bones or hair,"
but afforded also on careful analysis both volatile alkali and em-
pyreumatic oil. -|- " Dr Pallas," Ellis continues, " proceeds to
prove that corallines cannot be animals, as the pores of their
calcareous substances are too minute for any polypes to harbour
in. These words of the Doctor's seem to imply, as if the coral-
line substances were only habitations for detached polypes, and
not part of the animals themselves. How this affair stands, I
hope to have clearly demonstrated long before this, for I have
plainly seen, and endeavoured to shew mankind, that the softer
and harder parts of zoophytes are so closely connected with one

" It appears from the Lin. Corresp. Vol. i. p. 18G, that Pallas had written
disrespectfully of Ellis. In his Elen. Zoophytorum the latter, however, is pro-
fusely complimented : — " Ellisium subtilitate atque acumine observationum om-
nes super eminentem," — Pnef. p. x. — is praise enough surely, but its sincerity
might be questionable.

"I- This character, as Lamouroux remarks, is insufficient, seeing that the major
part of marine plants give out, in burning, odours and products analogous to those
of animals — Cor. Flex. p. 12. It is now well known that chemistry affords us,

in its minute analyses, no test between animal and vegetable matter See Prout's

Bridgewater Treat, p. 415, and more particularly Ticdemann's Comp. Physiolo-
gy, p. 48, &c.

26 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY.

another, that they cannot separately exist, and therefore have
not hesitated to call them constituent parts of the same body,
and that the polvpe-like suckers are so manv mouths belon^infir
thereto.

" Now, forthesmallnessofthe pores, which the Doctor has men-
tioned here (among the Corallines) to be a contradiction to ani-
mal life ; he certainly has forgot one circumstance, when he in-
troduces the CoralHum pumiluni album, (Essay Cor. t. 27. f. c.)
or his Millepora calcarea (Pall. Elench. p. 265,) as an animal,
which is, that he there says, it has absolutely no pores at all.

" As there can be no doubt, but every part of what is called
Coralline is necessary to make out such an animal, or beinof, it
will be very difficult, if not almost impossible, to determine the
proportion there ought to be between softer and harder parts ;
and therefore it cannot be thought unreasonable to say, that in
some of this tribe the stony parts are by much the greater part
of the whole, especially as Doctor Pallas's objection can be only
against the crust, or lapidescent part, as the inside of many of
them is far from being hard, being exactly like a Sertularia, so
that I do not know if it would not be a good definition to one
well acquainted with that tribe to say, a Coralline is a Sertula-
ria, covered with a stony or calcareous crust ; if the mouths
should happen to be very small, their number may make up that
deficiency. We see in the greatest number of corallines their
surface full of holes ; we saw the same in Escharas and Mille-
poras thirty years ago ; since that time magnifying glasses have
been improved, so as to shew us, that they are all orifices for
polype-like suckers ; why should not we now admit that glasses
may be still more improved, so as even to make us able to see
what may be the intention and use of these minute orifices, which
according to all rules of reasoning, we must suppose to approach
in nature to them they are most alike. From this extreme mi-
nuteness then of the pores of these Milleporse, confessed to be
zoophytes, as well as those of Corallina officinalis as before men-
tioned, it is no great matter of surprise, that Doctor Jussieu
could not perceive any animal life in the corallines, nor Doctor
Schlosser in the JMillepora calcarea. As these experiments
ought to be attended with manv convenient coincidinof circum-
stances that do not often happen to persons who only go to the

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 27

sea side, perhaps for a few dajs or hours, so that it is unreason-
able to conclude, because they have been unsuccessful, that
more accurate observers may not be more fortunate at another
time." — Having thus disposed of an argument which he could
not distinctly answer, Ellis goes on to notice the fact of the co-
ralline which had been found on Beroummer heath in Fries-
land, and which the vagueness of the manner in which the dis-
covery was announced permitted or warranted him to ascribe to
accident ; and he then concludes his admirable essay with a
faithful and minute account of the fructification of the confervse,
and proves to a demonstration that when Baster and Pallas at-
tributed a similar fructification to corallines, they had very er-
roneous ideas of the subject,*

The discussion rested here, and zoophytes, including the
sponges and corallines, have been ever since enumerated among
the subjects of the animal kingdom, although some, among whom
Spallanzani may be particularized, continued in the belief that
the corallines and the sponges were vegetables. But naturalists
continue to be divided in opinion relative to the nature of acknow-
ledged zoophytes, for many, of whom Bory de St Vincent may be
considered the chief, -f- still speak of them as intermediate beings
partaking of a twofold nature; while others, under the leading of
Lamarck, defend their claims to pure animality. No new doctrine
has been promulgated ; neither indeed have the old been defended
or attacked by any other facts or arguments than those already
referred to, and with these before me I cannot hesitate to give
my assent to the opinion of Ellis. No one denies that the
polypes considered abstractedly from their polypidoms are really
animals ; — their quick and varied movements, — their great irri-

■ Phil. Trans. Vol. Ivii. p. 404, &c Pallas appears to have been con-
vinced by this essay that the Corallines were animal ; and he acknowledged that
in reference to the land species he had been imposed on. — Lin. Corresp. i. 227,
and 568. Yet it should be remembered that Captains Vancouver and Flinders
observed on the shores of New Holland, at considerable heights above the level
of the sea, arborescent calcareous productions which they considered to be corals.
Peron says they are either corals or vegetables incrusted with calcareous mat-
ter; and Dr Clarke Abel has proved that they are the latter — Edin. Phil.Joum.
u. 198.

f Encyclop. Method, ii, 647 — Cuvier in an early work gave countenance to
this opinion, but in his Regne Animal, iii, 220, Paris, 1830, it is repudiated.

28 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOOY.

lability, — the existence of a mouth and stomach, — the nature of
their food, its digestion, and the evomition of the indigestible
remains are incontestible proofs of this ; — and it seems impro-
bable, to say no more, that this animal should be fitted round
with a case that grew independent of it and from a different
cause. And the case itself has no analogy, as Ellis shewed very
clearly, either to bark or to wood : it possesses the structure of
neither of them, nor is it formed in the same manner by the
addition of concentric layers, nor does it contribute to the
formation of new parts, but, like the shell of testaceous mol-
lusca, it is extravascular, and when once formed suffers no
other change than what external injuries or time may operate.
If possible its coincidences with the skin of cellular plants are
even fewer : the one is a living part which has very important
functions to perform in relation to the plant itself and to the at-
mosphere or circumfluent medium in which it lives ; the other
exhibits no action characteristic of life, and is nothing more
than a condensed albuminous or calcareous sheath, appropriat-
ed solely to support or protection.*

But although I aorree with the advocates of the animalitv of
zoophytes in general, I cannot go the length of Ellis in consi-
dering it proved that sponges and corallines belong to the same
class. Ellis, we have seen, knew that no polypes were to be
found in sponge, and their existence in the pores of corallines
was inferred merely from the structure of these and their chemical
composition. They have been examined by subsequent natu-
ralists fully competent to the task, and under the most favour-
able circumstances, — in particular by Cavolini and Schweigger,
— and the result has been a conviction that these productions-
are truly apolypous. Now this fact, in my opinion, determines
the point, for if they are not the productions of polypes, the zoolo-
gist who retains them in his province must contend that they are
individually animals, an opinion to which I cannot assent, see-

* I do not enter into the question whether the Confervae are real animals or
not, because, whatever conclusion we might adopt, they would not come within
our definition of a zoophyte or polype, since they assuredly have neither mouth,
tentacula, nor stomach. Nor need I discuss the propriety of instituting, with
Treviranus, a fourth kingdom of animated nature, composed of the zoophytes
and aquatic cryptogamia, as my object and plan is only to dcscrihe what have
been almost universally considered zoophytes.

HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 29

iiig that they have no animal structure or individual organs, and
exhibit no one function usually supposed to be characteristic of
that kingdom. Like vegetables they are permanently fixed, —
like vegetables they are non-irritable, — their movements, like
those of vegetables, are extrinsical and involuntary, — their nu-
Iriment is elaborated in no appropriated digestive sac — and like
cryptogamous vegetables or algae they usually grow and ramify
in forms determined by local circumstances, and if they present
some peculiarities in the mode of the imbibition of their food
and in their secretions, yet even in these they evince a nearer
affinity to plants than to any animal whatever.

30 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

CHAPTER II.

On the Structure and Functions of the Polypes
abstractedly considered.

On the continent the term Zoophyte has of late been used in
a very extensive sense, so as to include every animal which ex-
hibits a circular disposition of parts radiating from a common
centre, and many also in which this character is little or not at
all obvious. In this country the word has never been so em-
ployed excepting in translations from a foreign language : no
English writer ever thinks of calling an intestinal worm, or a
sea-jelly, or a star- fish, or even the infusory animalcules, a zoo-
phyte ; but he applies the name to no other creatures than those
which in their form, or most remarkable characters, recall the
appearance of a vegetable or its leading properties. In this
restricted sense I also use it in this work, or rather with a still
narrower circumscription, having assigned what appear to be
sufficient reasons for removing the corallines and sponges from
the category, and restoring them to the vegetable kingdom, to
which the earlier naturalists believed they had a rightful claim.
The definition of a zoophyte is thus considerably simplified, but
there remains sufficient variety and discrepancy in the consti-
tuents of the order to render that definition in some degree vague
and incongruous. The fact is — the classification of molluscous,
and radiated, and acritous animals requires to be recast : the
limits between them have not been determined with undisputed
precision, and it seems probable that there are in each class some
tribes which will pass from one to the other as discovery pro-
ceeds. It has been recently proposed* to remove a large pro-

* Thompson's Zoological Researches and Illustrations, p. 92.

OF POLYPES. 31

portion of zoophytes hitherto considered legitimate subjects of
their order to the molhisca, which, about the year 1815,* had
received a considerable accession to its numbers from the same
source; but so far from acknowledging the propriety of the pro-
posed translation, I incline to agree with Lamarckf, that it would
be better to separate again the colonized zoophytes from the
mollusca, and form with them, and with such zoophytes as have
an analogous organization, a distinct class, to occupy the wide
interval between the molluscan and radiated types, allied to the
former by the non-symmetrical figure of the body, and to the
latter by the circularity of the oral members. It is, however,
unnecessary to enter here upon this discussion, for my intention
is to describe what are usually reckoned zoophytes, without
having regard to the naturalness of the group considered as a
whole, and with this view I adopt the class as it was long ago
established by Solander and Ellis, excepting only the corallines
and sponges, which will form the subject of separate monographs.
The following definition may serve to characterize the class :

Animals avertebrate^ inarticulate, soft, irritable and contrac-
tile, loithout a vascular or separate respiratory or nervous sys-
tem : mouth superior, central, circular, edentulous, surrounded by
tubular or more commonly by Jilifurm tentacula ; alimentary ca-
nal variable, — where there is an intestine the anus opens near
the mouth: asexual; gemmiparous : aquatic. — The individuals
(Polypes) of a few families are separate andperfect in themselves,
hut the greater number of zoophijtes are compound beings, viz.
each zoophyte consists of an indefinite number of individuals or
polypes organically connected and placed iv a calcareous, horny
or membranous case or cells, forming, by their aggregation,
corals or plant-like Polvpidoms.

In this definition there are two parts which require our par-
ticular attention — the Polype whose presence is essential, and
the Polypidom,X which is the house or support of the polype,

* Savigny's Memoires sur les Animaux sans Vertebres. Seconde Partie. Pa-
ris, 1816, 8vo.

f Hist. Nat. des Anim. s. Vert. iii. 82 — 87.

\ I borrow this term from the translator of Lamouroux's work on Corallines.
The Rev. Mr Kirby, in his Bridgewater Treatise, uses the word Pohjpary to ex-
press the same thing. Both of them are translations of Puhjpier, a word in-
vented by Reaumur, and now in general use among the French naturalists.

32 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

and which, though commonly present, is yet not necessary to
the existence of a zoophyte. To the structure and functions
of the former I hmit myself in this chapter ; and should the
reader find the outhne given in relation to some of the families
too slight and sketchy, I may advertise him that he will find
it filled up with greater detail in the observations which it is in-
tended to prefix to each separate order.

The description usually given of the structure and functions
of polypes in general has been derived principally from an ex-
amination of the Hydra— a naked species which inhabits ponds
and ditches. A polype is thus represented as being a somewhat
globular or cylindrical body of small size, of a homogeneous gela-
tinous consistence, and very contractile, in the centre of which
there is excavated a cavity ^for the reception and digestion of its
food. The aperture to this cavity is placed on the upper disk
of the body, and is encircled by one or two series of filaments
or tentacula which are used to capture the necessary prey, and
bring it within reach of the lips ; while the opposite end serves
the purpose of a sucker to fix the creature to its site, or being-
prolonged like a thread down the hollow sheath, to connect it
with its fellow-polypes of the same polypidom, which by this
means become compound animals, " the whole of whose parts
are animated by one common principle of life and growth."
There are no organs of sense, no limbs appropriate to locomo-
tion, no circulating vessels, no nerves, nor lungs, nor gills, no
chylopoetick viscera, nor intestine, for there is " but one con-
duit both for purgation of their excrements, and reception of
their sustenance ;" and when to these negations there is to be
added the want of generative organs, a being of simpler organi-
zation than the polype can scarcely be conceived ; and, perhaps,
it is actually the simplest, for the infusory animalcules which
had been placed underneath them in the scale of organization,
are now known to possess a much more complex structure.

Such is the idea of a polype we obtain from the writings of
Ellis, and the description of its general structure given by La-
marck,* after an interval of seventy years, is identically the

* Anim. s. Vert. ii. 10. Bosc, Vers, ii. 216— Lamouroux in 1810 and 1812
bad indeed asserted that the polypes with polypidoms coidd not, hi relation to
their structure, be compared mth the fresh-water hydra, but that they approxi-

OF POLYPn:S. 33

same. Some few species, classed by the predecessors of the
latter among zoophytes, had in the meantime been ascertained
to be differently constructed, and furnished with less simplicity,
but being in consequence removed into a different category, they
were not allowed to disturb the received opinions on polype ana-
tomy. Still more recent discoveries have shewn, however, that
these are very erroneous, and that the animals of even our na-
tive polypidoms form at least two classes distinguished by a very
remarkable dissimilarity of organization. By the one they are
allied to the tunicated and acephalous mollusca, more especially
to the compound families of the former, and hence may be de-
nominated Ascidian polypes ; by the other they form a link of
the chain or circle which associates the radiated animals, and,
assuming the hydra for their representative, we shall call them
Hydraform polypes.

The ascidian polypes never occur in a separate and naked
form, but are always placed within the cells of a polypidom of a
calcareous, membranous, or fibro-gelatinous consistence. The
form of the cells in many genera, as Eschara, Flustra and Cel-
lepora, suggests a belief that their tenants, although arranged
in a close and determinate manner, are each separate from their
neighbours and complete in themselves, — an opinion that is
held by some of our best naturalists ; but the observations of
Dujardin on some allied fossil polypidoms, render it very pro-
bable that there are pores of communication between the cells;*
while those made by Professor Grant seem to have proved that
the polypes of the Flustra are connected together by a living
axis, and are hence truly compound beings. Since the Vesiculi-
fera also, which are admitted to be composites, belong unques-
tionably to this remarkable form of animated entities, it is safer,

mated nearer than was believed to the mollusca, of which they might at some
future time be considered a family. The opinion certainly rested on few and
hasty observations, and no anatomical details were given in its support. See his
Edit, of Soland. Zoophyt. pref. p. vii. For example, he not only recognizes a
relationship between Lobularia and Actinia, but he tells us that the polypes of
the FlustriB, Cellariie and Sertularioe are similar to those of Lobularia ! Coral.
Flex. p. 332. Such loose observations as these are, have no influence on the
progress of discovery. The observations of Savigny were evidently more spe-
cific and correct ; but I am not aware that the details have been yet published.
— See his Mem. sur les Anim. s. Vert. ii. p. G5.
* Blainville's Actinologie, p. 675.

C

54

STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

for the present, to consider all the ascidian as compound poly-
pes.* T'here is nevertheless a remarkable difterence between
them and the hydraform tribes in their mode of composition.
In the latter the polypes are simply developements of the com-
mon central fleshy mass, identical with it in structure and tex-
ture ; in the former each individual is a distinct organism, and
the medium which binds them together, whether vascular or li-
gamentous, has its own peculiar character. The one we may
compare to a chain of which all the hnks are welded,~the other
to a necklace where the beads are strung together by a percur-
rent thread. To express this distinction we shall call the hydra-
form compound polypes, and the ascidian aggregated polypes.

The body of the ascidian polypes is lengthened, somewhat
cylindrical or at times bulged at the base, and when at rest lies,
in the form of a syphon, doubled up upon it- rig- ^'

self in the cell, (Fig. 2, \) to which it is con-
nected by a tendon at the bottom, and by the
duplicature of a thin membrane round the
aperture, so that it is impossible it should ever
voluntarily leave the cell to swim at large, as
Baster and others have maintained. The
head or upper end is surrounded by a single
row of tentacula, (Fig. 3, «,) which are solid,
filiform and non-contractile, for the animal
can only shorten them, excepting to a
slight extent, by rolling them up in a spiral
manner: they are apparently smooth, but with a high mag-
nifier it is ascertained that they are clothed with numerous
fine cilia, % which are in ceaseless motion, and are supposed

* " The polypi are most intimately and inseparably connected with the axis
by three parts of their body, and are only digestive sacs or mouths develoj.ed by
the axis, as in all other zoophytes, for the nourishment of the general mass. By
the axis of a zoophyte, I understand every part of the body excepting the polypi,
whether of a calcareous, horny, or fleshy nature. The exact mathemaUcal ar-
rangement and forms of the cells of Flustrs is incompatible with their existence
as separate and independent beings, but is quite analogous to what we are ac-
customed to observe in C'ellaria., Sertulan^e, Pluniularia^ and many other well-
known compound animals."_Grant in Edin. New Phil. Journ. m. lib. ^ee
also Blainville, Man. d'Actiiiologie, p. 99.

t The figure, for which I am indebted to my friend Mr William Scott, repre-
sents the polypes of Flustra membraiiacea in a state of retraction.

\ For a history of this discovery, written with great learning and impartiality.

OF POLYPKS.

35

to perform the office of breathing organs by keeping up a constant
current of water along their surfaces, which sets in towards
the mouth in an invariable direction ; i'ig- 3.

and from tlie incessant revolution of
particles within the mouth and the gul-
let, observed by Professor Grant, this
oro-an seems to be also ciliated internal-
ly. The more especial use of the ten-
taculais to arrest the prey which chance
floats within their reach and conduct it
to the mouth, — a simple aperture pla-
ced in the centre of the tentacular cir-
cle, and which is armless, having in no
instance either jaws or teeth. It is the
entrance into a long membranous gul-
let (5,) of ))erfect transparency, and
which can be traced through its equally transparent envelope,
to its termination in a somewhat globular and comparatively
large organ placed near the curvature of the body, and render-
ed opaque partly by the greater thickness and fleshiness of its
structure, but perhaps more so by the nature of its contents.
This is the stomach (c,) and from the side of it there proceeds
a narrow intestine {d,) which follows a straight upward course
along the side of the gullet, and opens at the aperture of the
cell by a separate orifice, from which the undigested remains of
the food are ejected. There is another organ of a roundish
figure appended to the bend of the intestine, which is supposed
by some to be an ovarium (e,) but it seems not unnecessary to
remark, that this appropriation of it to the generative function
has perhaps no better proof than what is derived from a similari-
ty of position between it and the supposed ovarium of the com-
pound mollusca. It is, I presume, the organ which Blainville
says he is vvilling to believe performs the functions of the liver,*
an opinion in which I am disposed to concur.

see Dr Sbarpey's article " Cilia" in the Cyclopsedia of Anatomy and Physiology,

Vol. i. p. 609.

" Manuel d'Actinologie, p. 72. — In the Actiniae, Blainville adds, it is almost
certain that there is no Liver ; nor in the Hydraform polypes ; but in the Pen-
natulae " disseques vivans ou tres-frais, on remarque, dans les parois memes

du corps do I'estomac, des rangces d'organes en forme de petites taches jaunatres,

36 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

No trace of a nervous or vascular system of any kind has been
detected, nor is there any organ of sense, but the polypes are
notwithstanding very sensible of external impressions. * When
left undisturbed in a glass of fresh sea water, they push their
tentacula beyond the mouth of the cell by straightening the bo-
dy ; and then expanding them in the form of a funnel or bell,
they will often remain quiet and apparently immoveable for a
long time, presenting a very pretty and most interesting object
to an observer of " the minims of nature." If, however, the
water is agitated they withdraw on the instant, probably by the
aid of the posterior ligament or muscle ; — the hinder part of the
body is pushed aside up the cell, the whole is sunk deeper, and
by this means the tentacida, gathered into a close column, are
brought within the cell, the aperture of which is shut by the same
series of actions. The polypes of the same polypidom often pro-
trude their thousand heads at the same time, or in quick but ir-
regular succession, and retire simultaneously or nearly so, but
at other times I have often witnessed a few only to venture on
the display of their glories, the rest remaining concealed ; and
if, when many are expanded, one is singled out and touched with
a sharp instrument, it alone feels the injury and retires, with-
out any others being conscious of the danger, or of the hurt in-
flicted on their mate.

Of the anatomy of the hydraform polypes a sketch has al-
ready been given in the beginning of this chapter. They differ
from the ascidian in their figure, which is somewhat globular or
cylindrical and straight ; in the position of the body, which is
vertical ; in the homogeneity of their composition, which is a
semitransparent glairy gelatine, full of microscopic coloured
granules ; -f- and very remarkably, in being contractile at every

que je regarde comme analogues au foie." — Fig. 2 represents the polype of
Vesicularia imbricata highly magnified. It is copied from Thompson's Zool.
HI. Memoir v. pi. i. fig. 4.

' " But as we perceive, in these animals, phenomena which take place by
the medium of nerves in animals of a more elevated order, that is to say, sensi-
bility and voluntary motion, it is not inijjrobable that in them the nervous sub-
stance is mixed with their gelatinous or mucous mass, without being demonstra-
ble as a particular tissue." — Tiedemann's Comp. Phys. p. 64.

t Trembley having ascertained that the coh)ur of the polype resides in these
granules, and that it varies with the quality of their food, of which the nutritive
part or chyme passes first into the granules of the stomachal cavity and then

OF POLYPES.

37

point, so that they can change the figure of their bodies from a
globe to a cyhnder, or distort it with strictures, and can shorten
and extend the tentacula at will, sometimes to an extent which
is astonishing, although nothing like muscular tissue can be de-
tected in their structure. * When therefore they have occasion
to conceal themselves within their cells, they are not necessitat-
ed, like the ascidian, to bend the body in order to obtain suffi-
cient space for the tentacula, but they shorten the body and the
tentacula at the same time, causing the one to assume a more
globular form, and the other to dwindle down to mere knobs or

Fig. 4.

^ /tp I

papillae (Fig. 4.) -f- The tentacula, even when fully extended,

gradually into those placed more towards the surface, infers that they are a kind
of glands or rather vesicles, which have the power of sucking in and again tran-
spiring the nutritive fluid — Hist, des Polypes, p. 132. Lamarck adopts this
opinion, Anim. s. Vert. ii. 9, which is probably correct, but it ought to be remem-
bered that it is somewhat hypothetical. Consult in relation to this subject Ro-
get's Bridgewater Treatise, Vol. ii. p. 77-8, Carus's Comp. Anat. Eng. Trans.
Vol. i. p. 2.5, §. 23; and the reader will find Edwards' and Dutrochet's opinions
on the nature of the elementary corpuscles in Bostock's Elementaiy System of
Physiology, Vol. iii. p. 348 et seq. Tiedemann sums up our actual knowledge
in the following sentence. — " In animals of a simple structure, polypi, entozoa,
and some others, in which no vascular system for the movement of the humours
has hitherto been discovered, the nutritious assimilated liquid passes directly into
the parenchyma of the body, with which it enters into combination." — Comp.
Physiology, p. 35.

* Trembley, Mem. pour I'hist. des Polypes, p. 25. Carus' Comp. Anat. i. p. 43.
— Mr Lister, however, says that " in the substance of the necks of the polypi
(of Sertularia pumila,) transverse lines were visible, bearing a resemblance to
those characteristic of voluntary muscles in the higher animals ;" but we may
doubt whether they are truly muscular, for this accurate observer shortly after
acknowledges, that " nothing like muscular contraction was seen in the pulp
of this (Plumularia setacea,) or any other species." — Phil. Trans. 1-334, pp.
371-372.

f The figures represent Hydra viridis in various attitudes and states.

38 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

have not the same appearance, — they taper a little, and are
roughened with minute wart*=; generally arranged in an imper-
fectly verticiliate fashion ; and in their evolution they are less re-
gularly campanulate, one or more being usually in action and
movincr from the outline of the circle. The stomach is not a
distinct sac, but a simple cavity towards the centre of the body,
" neither figured nor limited by particular membranes," and
from which the indigestible remains of the food are ejected at
the same aperture by which it had entered, for the aperture in
the base of the stomach or intestine seems to be appropriated
to other offices. And in reference to its relation with the poly-
pidom there is this difference, — the hydraform polype is not
connected with the cell by any membrane or ligament, hut ra-
ther sits free within its miniature cup, retained there only by
the gelatinous living pedicle which is prolonged from its base
down the sheath, and binds all the polypes of the polypidom
in one sympathizing family.

But this description is applicable only to the Hydra itself,
and to those compound species which tenant the cups of the
plant-like polypidoms embraced in the order Zoophyta hydroida.
The polypes of the Asteroid zoophytes, although evidently mo-
delled on the same type, have made considerable advances to-
wards complexity of organization, and their relation to the poly-
pidom is entirely altered. Hitherto the polypidom has been,
what its name imports, a cell for retreat in danger, and in ordi-
nary an extravascular insensible sheath to protect the contained
animal from the rude contact of the circumfluent element; but
now we find it occupying an internal position, and instead of a
covering it has become a sort of prop or skeleton to a fleshy
crust in which the polypes are immersed. In the Alcyonium
this interior support is scarcely to be recognized in some cal-
careous snicula scattered throuoh the central mass, but in Pen-
natula it forms a bone stretched like a vertebral column from
one extremity to the other, and in Gorgonia it is ramified into
branches after the manner of a tree. It is this axis, under what-
ever shape it appears, which is the true analogue of the polypi-
dom of the ascidian and hydraform polypes, although the name
certainly has no suitableness here, for the polypes not only cannot
nestle in that which is uncellular, but they have no immediate

OF POLYPES.

39

connection with it. They, as ah-eady mentioned, are found
Iodised in a sort of Fig. 5.

cell (Fig. 5. a.) exca-
vated in a sarcoid crust,
which constitutes the
main bulk of the po-
Ivpiferous mass, and
which, in fact, is no-
thinof more than a mo-
dification of the bases
and outer skin of the
polvpes hardened by a
deposition of calcareous
granules and spicula,
and made more coria-
ceous in texture, to
bear with impunity^the
contact and ruffling of
the water.* This crust is accordingly a living irritable struc-
ture, permeated by tubes prolonged from the polypes and by
capillary canals, for the conveyance of water and nutriment to

every part.

The connection between the crust and the polypes is there-
fore of the most intimate kind, and if for conveniency the latter
are separately described, the reader should ever remember, that
this separation is a forced and artificial one. An asteroid po-
lype mass is known by the orifices of the cells forming on the sur-
face a mark more or less resembling a star, as commonly repre-
sented in maps— hence the name of the order: when the polype is

* " Lorsqu'on observe les Alcyons dans leiir etat naturel, la ligne de demarca-
tion entre ces deux parties parait bien tranchie, et on pouvrait au premier abord,
croire ces petits animaux loges dans des cellules au pourtour de rouverture des-
qnelles ils adhereraient ; mais quand on eleve a I'aide d'un acide etendu d'eau,
le depit calcaiie dont la base du polype est environee, on voit qu'il y a entre
ces parties continuite organique, et que la ceUule polypifere n'est autre chose
que la portion inferieure du corps du polype qui, en se contractant, rentre e,,
luimeme, comme nous I'avons deja vu pour les Alcyonides. Le polypier com-
mun n'est en effet autre chose que la rcsultat de I'aggregation intime de la por-
tion basilaire des polypes." Milne- Edwards in Ann. des Sc. Nat. iv. 336. an
1835. The student may compare this with Lamouroux's description of the Gor-
gonia. Corallina, j). VJH.

40 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

protruded from this cell the body has a cylindrical figure, its
upper disk surrounded by eight short pectinated hollow tenta-
cula, in the centre of which the mouth is situated, leading into
a distinct stomach, which is as it were suspended in the centre,
and sustained there by eight thin membranous septa, which,
stretched between the outer surface of the stomach and the in-
ner surface of the external tunic, divide the intervening space
into eight equal compartments. The base of the stomach is
perforated like the mouth, and from the margin of the aperture
depend eight white tortuous filaments, which hang, either loose
or connected to a continuation of the membranous septa, in a
wide abdominal cavity, immediately underneath the stomach.
This cavity is again continuous with a tube which penetrates
the common mass, communicating freely bv anastomoses with
the tubes of other polypes, and with a fine net-work of capilla-
ry vessels, formed in the spaces between them, by means of
small apertures in their walls. ( Fig. 5. *) In this manner there
is effected a very free communication between the individuals
of each common mass, so much so, that the water swallowed by
iiny one polype of it rapidly permeates the whole, -f- By tra-
cing the course of the fluid we may obtain a clearer view of the
organization. The water then enters the mouth, and passes
through the cylindrical gullet and stomach into the abdominal
cavity ; thence part of it, flowing through the canals formed
by the septa stretched between the stomach and outer tunic,
passes into the tentacula with whose cavity the canals are con-
tinuous, and by means of small apertures in the sides of the
hollow tentacula, the water penetrates and unfolds the cilia,
with which these tentacula are fringed. By the distension from
the water thus introduced, the body of the polype and its ten-
tacula are forced beyond the surface, and every organ fully dis-
played. Another portion of the water in the abdominal cavity
passes into the tube continuous with it, fills it and the others
in connection with it, and by means of holes in their parietes
finds access into the intermediate capillary net-work, so that
the whole mass is permeated with the fluid, and all and every

* A longitudinal section of Aleyoiiium tligitatum.

-f- Milne- Edwards has proved this by a decisive experiment — Ann. dcs Sc.
Nat. iv. 3:28, and 338, an. 18.3.5.

OF POLYPES. 41

portion distended to a bulk which may be more than double of
that which it had previous to the introduction of the fluid, and
which it resumes when, from the application of irritants, the
polypes contract themselves, and by their contractions force out
all the imbibed water.— The tortuous filaments suspended from
the base of the stomach have been generally taken for ovaries,
but the observations of Dr Grant and M. Edwards seem to
have disproved this opinion. The latter of these eminent na-
turalists believes them to be analogous to the biliary canals of

insects. *

The affinity in structure between the asteroid zoophytes and
those which we name helianthoid, from their resemblance to some
compound flowers, is evident, although in the latter there is a
still further recession from the simplicity of polype anatomy .
We find in them a mucous coat covering the surface, — beneath
it a layer of transverse submuscular fibres, while the body is sup-
ported by numerous strong cartilaginous lamellse arranged in
longitudinal parallelism. Each of the lamellae is attached in-
feriorly to the circular layer which constitutes the base of the
animal, and divides into three fascicles,— one which goes to the
stomach and to the rim of the oral aperture, — another to the
roots of the tentacula,— and the third is prolonged to the outer
labial border, where it is bent back to form its free margin, f
The stomach has its distinct and proper parietes ; there are
special organs for the developement of the reproductive gemmae ;
and even some traces, as is asserted, of a nervous system ; while
the numerous tentacula are perforated like canals, in order that
the water of respiration may be introduced into the interior, and
the nutritive fluids more thoroughly influenced by its oxygen.

It has been mentioned already that there is no proper circu-
lation — no movement of a fluid analogous to blood in appropri-
ate vessels — in any zoophyte, but in many of the hydroida it
has been discovered that there is a continuous and uniform cur-
rent of a fluid, containing granular bodies which have them-
selves a rotatory motion, within the tubular portions of the horny
polypidom. Cavolini first detected this sort of circulation, which

* Ann. des Sc. Nat. iv. 331 ; an. 1835.
f Blaitiville, Man. d'Aftinologie, p. 68.

42 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

is very similar to what has been observed in the Chara and other
plants, in the Sertularia; and recently Mr Lister has confirm-
ed this discovery, and ascertained the existence of the same
phenomenon in almost all the genera of the order. 'J he result
of his curious observations is thus summed up by Dr Roget.
" In a specimen of the Tubularia indivisa, when magnified one
hundred times, a current of particles was seen within the tubular
stem of the polype, strikingly resembling, in the steadiness and
continuity of its stream, the vegetable circulation in the Chara.
Its general course was parallel to the slightly spiral lines of ir-
regular spots on the surface of the tube, ascending on the one
side, and descending on the other ; each of the opposite cur-
rents occupjing one-half of the circumference of the cylindric
cavity. At the knots, or contracted parts of the tube, slight
eddies were noticed in the currents ; and at each end of the
tube the particles were seen to turn round, and pass over to the
other side. In various species of Sertularise, the stream does
not flow in the same constant direction ; but, after a time, its
velocity is retarded, and it then either stops, or exhibits irregu-
lar eddies, previous to its return in an opposite course ; and so
on alternately, like the ebb and flow of the tide. If the cur-
rents be designedly obstructed in any part of the stem, those
in the branches go on without interruption, and independently
of the rest. The most remarkable circumstance attending
these streams of fluid is, that they appear to traverse the cavity
of the stomach itself, flowing from the axis of the stem into that
organ, and returning into the stem, without any visible cause de-
termining these movements." *

The power which sets in motion and maintains this current
is yet undiscovered. Professor Grant asserts that it depends
on the action of minute vibratile cilia, — " the common agents
of all analogous movements in the lowest tribe of animals, ""f* —
but no direct observation has confirmed this explanation, which,
it will be observed, is founded on analogy only, and it has this
in opposition — that the non-existence of cilia in the external or-
gans of the zoophytes in question has been distinctly proved.

* Bridgew. Treat. Vol. ii. p. 233. See also Tiedemann's Comp. Pliysiol.
p. 150, Ent. Mag. Vol. iii. p. 174: and Grant's Outlines of Comp. Anat. p.
429-30.

t Oiitliiu's ()(' Coinj). Aunt. p. 430.

OF POLYPES. 43

As to the purpose of the circulation in the animal's economy, it
appears, from the experiments of Mr Lister, " to be the great
ao-ent in absorption, and to perform a prominent part in the ob-
scure processes of growth; and its flow into the stomach of the
polypi seems to indicate that in the very simple structure of this
family it acts also as a solvent of the food.— The particles car-
ried by it," continues Mr Lister, " present an analogy to those
of the blood in the higher animals on one side, and of the sap
of vegetables on the other. Some of them appear to be deriv-
ed from the digested food, and others from the melting down
of parts absorbed ; but it would be highly interesting to ascer-
tain distinctly how they are produced, and what is the office they
perform, as well as the true character of their remarkable acti-
vity and seemingly spontaneous motions ; for the hypothesis of
their individual vitality is too startling to be adopted without good

evidence."*

'Ihis sort of circulation is not to be confounded with those
aqueous currents which flow over the surfaces of the external
organs of the ascidian polypes.f It has been already stated

* Phil. Trans. 1834, p. 377.

f Dr Grant repeatedly asserts that the tentacula of the hydraform polypes are
also ciliated, and I would not have dared to controvert this statement, although
my ov.-n observations had long ago satisfied me of its incorrectness, had it not
been at variance with the observations of others who have especially directed
their attention to the subject Raspail states that he was not able to discover
anything analogous to cilia on the tentacula of the Hydra, ( Org. Chem- p. 293 ;)
and Dr Sharpey says, that in the form of polype " which exists iu most true
species of Scrtularia, Carapanularia, and Plumularia, and in aUied genera, the
tentacula or arms are destitute of cilia, and incapable of giving an impulsion to
the M>«<e»-."— Cyclopedia of Anat. and Physiology, Vol. i. p. 611. The observa-
tions of Mr Lister are equally decisive. Phil. Trans. 18-34, p. 377.

Raspail maintains that there are really no cilia, but that the appearance
of them is occasioned by currents of fluid aspired or drawn to and within the
body, and expired or driven from it, and these currents are said to be produced
by the difference of temperature between the fluid in the body and exterior to
it. " A happy conjecture led me to consider these vibratory cilia as being mere-
ly streams of a substance either inspired or expired, but at any rate of a diflfe-
rent density, and consequently of a different refractive power from the surround-
ing medium." P. 293 " The cilia of a respiratory organ are, then, the effect

of a diflTerence of density between the water expired, and that in which the ani -
mal swims. Now there is no difficulty in admitting that, since caloric is disen-
gaged in the respiration of animals of a supeiior order, it may also be disengag-
ed, although, if we may so speak, in a microscopic proportion, during the act of

44 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

that innumerable cilia or miniature lamellae clothe the surfaces
of their tentacula, and by their rapid vibrations drive a constant
equable stream of water along one side, which returns along the
other in an opposite direction : and by this means the purposes of
respiration are effected, and the nutrient fluid fitted for assimila-
tion with the body. The cilia, to adopt the language of Pro-
fessor Grant, " are disposed and moved in such a manner as
that the streams which they produce in the surrounding water
are driven along the one side of the tentaculum from the mouth
of the polypus, and on the other side of the tentaculum always
towards the mouth of the polypus. And we never find that di-
rection of their motion reversed, or that direction of the cur-
rents changed, by which their respiration is effected and their food
obtained. They are vibratile on the arms of most of the lower
zoophytes, as sertularise, plumularise, serialarise, cellarise, flustrse,
alcyonia, which keep their arms stiffly out in a regular cam-
panulate form, while the currents flow to their mouth. When
we watch the sides of the tentacula of these animals with atten-
tion, and by the aid of powerful glasses, we see the extreme ra-
pidity of the movements, and the remarkable regularity of the
form, disposition, and motions, of those singular vibratile bodies.
From the number of them, exceeding sometimes 400,000,000
in a single animal, it is not probable that their extraordinary
movements are the result of any spontaneous efforts of the ani-
mal, or are accompanied with any kind of perception or con-
sciousness in these animals, which have never been found to
present a single nerve in their bodies. The independent na-
ture of the motion of those minute respiratory organs is observ-
ed when we cut off the tentacula altogether ; and observe, that

expiration in the Infusoria and the Molluscce. The difference, then, between the
density of the water expired and that of the surrounding water, proceeds from
a difference of temperature." P- '297 — Raspail has defended this explanation
of the phenomena at great length in the Mem. de la Soc. d'Hist. Nat. de

Paris, Tome iv. p. 131 — 142 Dr Mayer also denies the existence of cilia,

and concludes that the motion is produced by a peculiar substance named
by him " vibratory matter," which adheres to the surfaces on which the pheno-
menon shows itself. Brit, and Foreign Med. Rev. Vol. iii. p. 467. The expla-
nation of Raspail, and the foolish hypothesis of Mayer, are completely disproved
by the observations of Professor Grant on the Bcroe ; (Trans. Zool. Soc. i.
p. 11.) and of Dr Sharpey on numerous animals — Edin. New Phil. Journ.
July 1835.

OF POLYPES. 45

they still continue the rapid vibration of their cilia ; and though
severed from the polypus, the tentacula continue to move for-
ward through the water; the severed tentaculum of a flustra is
Seen to swim through the water like a worm. The number of
those organs varies much ; they are eight in Serialaria lendigera,
and in Plumularia falcata, fourteen in Cellaria avicularia, twenty-
two in Flustra carbasea. The effect of those motions of the
ciha again is obviously to change the stratum of water constant-
ly in contact with the most delicate fleshy parts of those zoo-
phytes, with the highly organized soft irritable fleshy polypi. Thus
they aerate the cellular texture of their body, at the same time
that they bring the animalcules — their ordinary food — within the
grasp of the tentacula."*

All polypes — ascidian and hydraform — subsist on animal mat-
ter, feeding upon it either in a living state, or dissolved and sus-
pended in the circumfluent medium. The Hydrse and smaller
species seize on worm.s and animalcules brought accidentally with-
in reach, or carried into the vortex formed by the play of the
tentacular cilia :-|- the larger kinds (Helianthoida) sw^allow small
crabs and shelled mollusca, rejecting the shells after having
sucked out the soft contents. The food, in the Hydroida, is
dissolved and necessarily made chylous in the stomach, and di-
rectly absorbed from it ; but in the ascidian it is probable that
the process of chylification is not completed until the food has
passed into the intestine. In the higher animals the chyle is
mixed with the blood and exposed to the influence of atmosphe-
rical air before it is fitted for assimilation and growth ; and though
bloodless, this air is no less necessary to the growth and exist-
ence of polypes, which soon languish and die in vessels of un-

* Lect. C'omp. Anat. in the Lancet, 1834, Vol. ii. p. 959 " All the cilia ap-
pear to commence and to cease their motions at the same moment. The con-
stancy with which they continue would seem to exclude the possibility of their
being the result of volition ; and they are, therefore, more probably determined
by some unknown physical cause, dependent, however, on the life of the animal.'
Roget, Bridgew. Treat, i. 173.

f " II seroit cependant possible de croire que ces animaux pourroient aussi
bien se nourrir d'animalcules que les Hydres ; mais Cavolini dit positivemeut
que, quoiqu'il ait souvent observe des polypes de gorgones, de millepores dans
des eaux remplies d'animalcules, il ne les a jamais vus essayer a en saisir avec
leur tentacules." Blainville, Man. d'Actinol. p. 97. Raspail nevertheless proves
that they feed on them Mem. Soc. Hist- Nat. iv. p. 88.

4() STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

renewed water. Hence the current within the tubes of some
polypidonis which has been noticed : it is the movement of the
nutrient thiid which has found its way from the ahmentary sac
to tile surface of the body, where it is subjected to that agent
which alone can fit it for the purposes of Hfe.

Amongst zoophytes there is no distinction of sexes, but every
individual appears to be capable of producing reproductive buds
or gemmules, or even eggs.* For the production of these, there is,
in the opinion of some good observers, a peculiar organ or ovarium
in all the ascidian tribes, and it is certain that their eggs are aU
ways generated within the polype cell. There are appropriate
productive organs also in the Helianthoida and Asteroida, in the
former situated between the ligamentous dissepiments which ra-
diate from the mouth to the base, between the stomach and the
skin ; and in some of the latter attached to the membranous
dissepiments in the abdominal cavity, while in others the gem-
mules appear to sprout from every part of the abdominal cavity,
and of the tube continuous with it. On the contrary, there is
no local generative organ in any Hydroida — all are " full of re-
productive life :" in the Hydra germs, similar in all respects to
the substance of the body, sprout indiscriminately from every
part of the surface ; in the Tubulariadae they pullulate from
underneath the tentacula where they may frequently be observ-
ed in clusters, and, in both of these families, the germs are
naked or uncovered. But in the extensive family which em-
braces the Sertularia and all its subgenera, the gemmules, at-
tached in general to a central placenta, (which is but a continu-

* " These corpuscles differ from true ova and seeds, which are ripened by fe-
cundation, inasmuch as the substance of which the new being is formed is r.ot,
as ova and seeds are, enclosed in a special envelope, which is separated from
them at the moment of the developement of the germ, and inasmuch as the
formation of the new individual is owing to the entire substance of the repro-
ductive corpuscle." — Ticdemann's Comp. Phy. 42 — " In the present slate of
our knowledge, however," as Dr Allen Thomson well remarks, " the distinction
between an ovum and a sporule (orgemmule) must be admitted to be somewhat
arbitrary." — Cyclop, of Anat. and Phys. ii. 4-34.

In reference to the asexual character of Zoophytes it seems proper to mention
in this note, that S\n\ and M. Delle Chiaje consider the Actiniae to be bisexous
or herma])hroditical, (Blainv. Actinol. p. 79) ; and Raspail has hinted that a si-
milar doublencss may be the property of the Alcyonella — Mem- sup. cit. p. 112.
Nothing has yet been advanced to give these opinions a probable aspect.

OF POLYPES. 47

Htion of the fleshy central part of "the stem,) are enclosed in ve-
sicles of the same texture as the polypidom itself, and neither
proceed from, nor have any immediate connection with, the
proper body of the polype, being evolutions from the pith or
fleshy axis which connects the polypes together, and binds the
various heads into one whole. — Such is a brief summary of the
facts ascertained on this head, but it behoves me to mention
that it is, to a certain extent, at variance with the opinions of
Professor Grant. He maintains from his numerous observa-
tions on a great variety of zoophytes, that the gemmules by
which these animals propagate are highly organized portions of
the gelatinous substance of the parent, formed " in almost every
known zoophyte," and not merely in the Hydrazoa, as we have
limited it, " by the common connecting substance of the ani-
mal, and not by the polypi, which appear to be only the mouths
or organs of digestion. In Plumularia?, Sertulariae, Campanu-
lariae, horny Cellarite, Antennulariae, the ova are formed in ve-
sicles which originate from the centre of the stem. In Flustra?,
calcareous Celiarise, and some others, the ova are formed in the
cells, but exterior to the bodies of the poh/pi, which disappear
before the ova arrive at maturity. In the Lobidarise, Gorgonise,
Spongiae, Clione, &c. the ova are formed and matured in the
common Jleshy substance of the body before they advance to be
discharged through the polypi, or the fecal orifices."*

I'he oemmules exhibit considerable variety in colour, — they
are milk-white, yellow, red, pink or green, but sometimes the
colour is not fully developed until near maturity. In all the as-
cidian polypes they are globular or have a tendency to that form,
and appear to preserve it until after their discharge from the
body ; but in the Hydroida this is not the case, for although
spherical in their earlier stages, " their shape alters on approach-
ing maturity ; it elongates, becomes elliptical, next prismatic,
and at length each corpusculum issues as a perfect animal from
the orifice of the vesicle," and exhibits in figure and in motion
much resemblance to the little leech-like Planaria?. (Fig. 6.-}-)

' Edin. Journ. of Science, No. 14.

t The figures represent the gemmules of Plumularia pluma. For the draw-
ing I am indebted to my friend Dr Coldstream of Leith.

48 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

The gemmules are all clothed uiili vibratile Fig. 6.

cilia similar to those of the tentacula of the

parents. Sometime previous to their dis- / <^j M \ r^

charge from the polypidom 'they are observ- I / I f) \J J

ed to be in a constant rotatory motion, by
which their birth seems to be facilitated ; and now at liberty in
the water they move and swim about as if they were guided by
volition and sense, whirling at the same time on their own axis.*
This freedom to move whither they hst may continue for several
hours, or even for two or three days, before a proper site for
their permanent stay and future growth is found, when they
begin to shoot up rapidly into those beautiful forms particular
to each species, as the Supreme Being has ordered and deter-
mined. The transformation of the ova, says Di' Grant, " from
their moving, irritable, and free condition of animalcules, to that
of fixed and almost inert zoophytes, exhibits a new metamor-
phosis in the animal kingdom, not less remarkable than that of
many reptiles from their first aquatic condition, or that of insects
from their larva state." One purpose of this mobility in the
ova is obvious ; — it is a means ordained for their diffusion, for
the parents being fixed immoveably to one spot, the reproduc-
tive germs would have dropt and sprung up at their roots, had
thev not, bv some such mechanism as we have described, been
carried to a distance, and spread over the bosom of the deep.

The evolution of the gemmules, subsequent to their fixation, has
been minutely traced by Professor Grant and Sir J. G. Dalyell.
When the bud falls from the crested head of Tubularia indivi-
sa, slight prominences, enlarged at the tips, pullulate from the
under surface, and the " nascent animal" elevating itself on
these rudiments of the tentacula, as on so many feet, enjoys the
faculty of locomotion. " Apparently selecting a site, it reverses

♦ In reference to those of Flustra carbasea — and tlie observation appears to
be very generally applicable — Dr Grant says — " they are very irritable, and are
frequently observed to contract the circular margin of their broad extremity, and
to stop suddenly in their course when swimming ; they swim with a gentle glid
ing motion, often appear stationary, revolving rapidly round their long axis, with
their broad end uppermost, and they bound straight forward, or in circles, with-
out any other apparent object, than to keep themselves atloat till they tlnd them-
selves in a favourable situation for fixing and assuming the perfect state." — Edin.
New Phil. Journ. iii. 117.

3

OF POLYPES, 49

itself to the natural position with the tentacula upwards, and is
then rooted permanently by a prominence, which is the mcipi-
ent stalk, originating from the under part of the head. Gra-
dual elongation of the stalk, afterwards continues to raise the
head, and the formation of the zoophyte is perfected."*— So
the worm-like embryo of the vesiculiferous Hydroida, a few days
after its exclusion from the vesicle, becomes stationary and con-
tracts into a circular or spherical spot which always retains its
original colour. It is transparent and soft, but in a short time
some opaque fleshy spots are visible within it, and are separated
by a thin homogeneous transparent substance, which is to form
the future polypidoni. " As yet it is exceedingly minute, soft,
and gelatinous ; but in the progress of its growth, the soft, thin,
homogeneous substance of the exterior becomes more dense,
embracing the first formed parts of the fleshy substance, indeed
all parts, and the whole jelly, with its thin covering, and con-
tinues to advance and to radiate. Then we observe a stem be-
ginning to rise from the centre of these radii of roots, which are,
in fact, the first formed parts that the little round gemmule
shoots out. So that the gemmule is become, not a polypus but
a root. It begins then to rise from the centre of the roots, and
at length to divide ; so it will at length form on its branches a
cell, at the bottom of which cell will gradually be developed a
polypus." -f In the Flustra and other ascidian zoophytes the pro-
cess is very similar, but in these, instead of the rootlets and little
embryo stalk, a cell is the part first formed, in which a polype
quickly and almost coetaneously developes itself; and this ori-
ginal cell and polypus is as large, as perfect, as fit for every pur-
pose to which it is destined as any of those which are in rapid
succession evolved from its sides and apex, for age adds only to
the number of individuals in the polypidom, and nothing to
their perfection.

* Dalyell in Edin. New Phil. Joiirn. xvii. 412.
f Grant, in the Lancet, 1834, Vol. i. p. 229.

Additional Notes.

1. BaspaiVs Description of the Structure of Polypes.

" I have pointed out tliat the polypus is nothing but the continuation of its

case, which becomes bony or cartilaginous in the lower part, in proportion as

the upper part is developed. Consequently its tube, or rather its involucrum,

D

50 STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY

instead of being a shapeless transudation from its body, is formed by successive
additions of epidermoid membranes applied over each other in proportion as
they are successively ossified. 1 have pointed out also that these polypi are
merely microscopic fixed Cephalopodes, having, hke the large species of this
genus, a bag which is contained within the tube, an excrementitial funnel, ovaries,
an intestinal canal with similar curvatures, and a head with all its aecessories
equally corresponding ; so that, if the Sepia, for example, instead of having the
dorsal part of its large bag ossified, had undergone the same change over the
whole external circumference of this organ, and if its base had been fastened by
an adhesive substance to a rock, it would have been exactly a gigantic polypus."
— New System of Org. Chem. p. 281-2. — Obs. The species on which Raspail
made these curious observations are not mentioned in the work from which the
extract is taken : they are applicable only to the ascidian polypes, and were
indeed derived from the Alcyonella stagnorum, as we learn from his Memoir on
this species in the fourth vol. of " Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat. de Paris."

2. Dr Grant's Account nf the Ova of the Fhistra.
" Although the ova of Flustrae have been often observed, no one appears to
have hitherto examined either their mode of formation within the cells, or their
mode of developement after expulsion, so as to determine the real nature of these
globular bodies, and the erroneous conjectures of naturalists respecting them have
greatly perplexed the history of this genus. The ova of the F. carbasea make
their first appearance as a small yellow point, a little below the aperture of the
cell, and behind the body of the polypus ; they are unconnected with the poly-
pus, and appear to be produced by the posterior wall of the cell, in the same man-
ner as the axis, or common connecting substance of the polypi, produces them in
other zoophytes. In this rudimentary state, they are found in the same cells
with the healthy polypi, but, before they arrive at maturity, the polypi of such
cells perish, and disappear, leaving the entire cavity for the developement of the
ovum. There is never more than one ovum in a cell, and it occupies about a
third of the cavity, when full grown and ready to escape. When first visible,
it has a round or slightly oblong and regular form ; when mature, it is ovate with
the small end next the aperture of the cell. The ova do not appear in all the
cells at one time, nor is there any discernible order as to the particular cells
which produce ova, or the part of the branch which contains them. Cells con-
taining ova are found alike on every part of the branches, from the base to with-
in two or three rows from the apex, occupied only by young polypi. Some-
times we find half a dozen or a dozen of contiguous cells all containing ova,
sometimes two or three only ; and often such cells occur singly, at short and
irregular distances from each other. We find the ova in all stages of maturity
on the same branch at the same time ; and we seldom observe a specimen of
the F. carhasea, during the months of February, March, and April, which does
not contain numerous ova. The ova have a lively yellow colour ; and when
they occur abundantly on a specimen or a part of a branch, they cause it to ex-
hibit the same lively hue, which is very dilferent from the dull spotted brown
appearance which the branches present at other seasons. Cells are often ob-
served on different parts of the branches, containing neither polypi nor ova ; but
the fewness of these, and the great lumiber of cells still containing only polypi
at the season of generation, render it probable that polypi are regenerated in the

3

OF POLYPES.

51

empty cells after the escape of tlie ova. In the empty cells from wLich the
ova have escaped, we frequently observe a few remains of the former polypus,
lying at the place where the body of the polypus bifurcated, and where the prin-
cipal connection seems to exist between the polypus and the axis ; we likewise
perceive numerous nionades and other animalcules busily employed in consum-
ing the remains of the dead polypus. The ovum, even before arriving at ma-
turity, exhibits very obvious signs of irritability, frequently contracting different
parts of its surface, and shrinking backward in its cell ; the cilia on its surface
are likewise observed in rapid motion within the cell, as in the ciliated ova of
other zoophytes. The matuie ova are often found with their small end pro-
jecting from the opening of the cells, and their final escape is aided by the in-
cessant vibrations of the cilia covering their surface, by the ova contracting them-
selves in their lateral direction, by the waves agitating the branches of the flus-
tra, and by the same incomprehensible laws which regulate the formation and
growth of the ova, and the whole economy of this zoophyte." — Edin. New. Phil.
Journ. iii. II 6-7.

Egg of Alcyoxidium hirsuti'm.

52 FORMS OF THE POLYPIDOMS.

CHAPTER III.

The Classifications of Zoophytes.

The existence of a polypidom is not, as has been already
mentioned, essential to a polype ; nor does it exercise, when
present, that great influence over the organization of its archi-
tects and tenants which might have been anticipated. Thus
the animal of the madreporous Caryophylisea does not essential-
ly differ from the naked Actinia; and the gelatinous Hydra is
a true representative of the tenant of the sheathed Sertulariadse
and Tubularia. No ascidian polype, however, is ever found
detached, and without a polypidom ; and it is the same with all
our native Astroida, but, perhaps, the clustered animal-flower
(Actinia sociata, Ellis, Zoanthus, Cuv.) of the Caribbsean sea,
might take its place in this tribe with greater propriety than in
any other.

In reference to their composition, Polypidoms may be divid-
ed into 1. the stony or calcareous, 2. the membrano-calcareous,
and 3. the horny and flexible ; but the line which separates these
divisions is often as uncertain and debateable as that which is
traced between the sister kingdoms. All are composed of the
same materials, viz. lime, and a gelatinous or membranaceous
substance ; and their peculiar characters depend on the differ-
ent proportions in which the materials are mixed. The calca-
reous, which are hard and inflexible, and, when dry, assume a
white colour, consist principally of carbonate of lime, with a small
quantity of the phosphate of the same earth, and the gelati-
nous matter which cements them into one coherent mass, is in
sparing proportion : that proportion is so greatly increased in
the polypidoms of the second section, that when the earthy in-
gredients have been removed by the action of diluted acids, the
structure retains its original form, and is, in fact, reduced to the

FORMS OF THE POLYPIDOMS. 53

condition of the polypidoms of the third section, which contain
no Hme, or very little of it, but are formed of a condensed gela-
tinous membrane, which resembles horn in every essential pro-
perty.*

These diversities in their chemical composition appear to be
of little value, either in a physiological or systematical point of"
view, for in every order of polypiferous zoophytes, we find calca-
reous and horny polypidoms. A curious species of Actinia se-
cretes a horny basis, the first rudiment of a madrepore ;-\- but all
other madrepores are calcareous : the axis of the Astroida is
sometimes of lime, sometimes of horn, and sometimes of mem-
brane : the polypidoms of the Hydroida are flexible and horny
without perhaps any exception; but there is no hesitation in as-
serting, that the ascidian tribes fabricate productions, some of
which are referable to every class that the chemist could devise.

The reader who is not already familiar with the outward forms
of our native polypidoms, will most easily obtain a correct idea
of them, by examining the figures which illustrate this work.
The very few and insignificant madrepores, or helianthoid poly-
pidoms, which inhabit the British shores, form either short cy-
linders or reversed cones, having the apex cupped and starred
with lamellae, which radiate from the depressed centre to the cir-
cumference. In the major part of the Astroida, or corticiferous
polypidoms, there is a central calcareous or horny axis, which
may be compared to the wood of a tree, and which is formed
by the successive deposition of layer over layer : this is coat-
ed or barked round with a living irritable flesh or jelly, thicken-
ed with calcareous matter, which has usually crystallized in the
form of spicula. The cells of the polypes are excavated in this
soft bark, on the surface of which they open by an aperture,
which is always cut into eight rays disposed in a starred fashion,
and corresponding to the number of the polype's tentacula; and this
aperture can be opened and shut at the pleasure of the inmates.
In Alcyonium, although an asteroid, there is no solid axis, but

" See Additional Note.

•f It has been doubted whether this horny base is formed by the Actinia, but
I quite agree with Dr Coldstream, that " it is secreted by its base, and that it
is as much part of the animal, in fact its skeleton, as are the calcareous axes of
Caryophyllaea, Fungia, &c. , between which and the true Actinia, it seems to form
a well-marked link." — See the Edin. New Phil. Journ. ix. p. 238.

54 FORMS OF THE POLYPIDOMS.

there is an evident tendency to its formation ; the materials lie
scattered in the form of spicula in the soft gelatinous centre;
and in the Cydonium these spicula have become so numerous,
that they impart considerable rigidity to the whole mass.

The polypidoms of the Hvdraform and Ascidian zoophytes
are more diversified in their fiijures and more decidedlv arbores-
cent. The latter are formed by an aggregation of distinct cells,
united in general after the fashion of the quincunx and spread
out into leaves or layers or compressed branches ; or the cells
being placed upon each other in pairs, or even in a single line,
they form neat confervoid tufts ; or lying immersed without any
very traceable pattern, the masses resulting from their union are
amorphous, or at least inconstant and irregular. The horny
material of the Hvdra tribe isalwavs formed into tubular sheaths
encasing the living flesh, jointed at intervals, sometimes of the
same calibre throuohout, but more commonlv dilated at intervals
into vases or cups, or cells, in which the proper body of the
polype is placed. The manner in which the sheath or tube is
divided and branched, is limited in diversity only by the num-
ber of the species, which are among the most delicate and in-
terestincr of all polypidoms, and pre-eminently imitative of vege-
table forms. These forms are of course altogether independent
of their aniniated tenants, — these " have been specifically ap-
pointed by Him to do what they have done, and are still effec-
tuating. They are meie instrumentalities at His conmiand.
They know nothing of the results they cause, nor mean to per-
form any of them, nor could of themselves co-operate with each
other, nor produce any systematical arrangement, or regulated
or orderly effects. It is their Master and Maker who organizes,
governs, and guides them to those movements and operations
which they perform, and from all others ; so that by His direct-
ing will they are made to do what we see them effect, and that
only because He restrains and averts them from all else."*

The formation of polypidoms has been the subject of con-
siderable discussion. The opinion of Ellis, as we have already
seen, was, that they are the result solely of a transudation, or
excretion of the constituent matters from the body of the poly-
pes, and this opinion has been maintained recently by Lamarck,

" Turner's Sac Hist, of the World, Vol. ii. p. 71.

FORMS OF THE POLYPIDOMS. 53

and some other naturalists. It rests on the assumption that the
polypidom is extravascuhir and inorganic, so that after its first
sohdification, it suffers no aUeration in form and quahty, beyond
what is evidently effected by the operation of chemical and me-
chanical causes : the changes resulting from its increase in size,
are not from the activity and pulsion of any inherent principle,
but from the super-imposition of additional layers, or from the
additions of new cells, or from the prolongation of the tubes,
which additions are all coetaneous with the growth and multi-
plication of the polypes, and the results of new secretions. Lin-
nceus, Pallas and Baster opposed Ellis, and believed in a vege-
tative principle, inherent in the polypidom itself, so that its growth
was in some measure independent of the living tenant ; and va-
rious arguments have been brought forward by Bory de St Vin-
cent,* which appear to him to demonstrate the truth of this
doctrine. We may act, however, not unreasonably in withhold-
ing our assent, for with such a feeble and errant point was the
argument handled that few felt its force, and the discussion has
continued even to this day in an unsettled state. It seems pro-
bable in fact that neither theory will explain the growth of all
polypidoms ; and as the peculiarities which distinguish these are
considerable and would render a general description involved and
obscure, I shall reserve the explanation of their mode of increase
for a section in the preface to each separate order. Enough
has in the meantime been said to show how unimportant the
polypidom must be as a primarij character in a natural classifi-
cation of zoophytes, and yet, until very recently, no other basis
was looked for or deemed available, and hence the artiiicialness
of the proposed " Systems" which, as a matter of history, we
now venture to review.

The Classifications of Zoophytes.
The main object of Ellis being to prove the animality of zoo-
phytes, he deemed a new classification of them unnecessary, and,
as it was sufficient for his purpose, he followed very closely that
which had been proposed by Ray in his Synopsisof British Plants, f
In successive chapters he treats of the vesiculated corallines
{ Sertulariadse), the tubular corallines (Tubularise), of the cel-

• Encyclop. Method, art. Zoophyte.

t Syii. Meth. Stirpium Brit. Edit. 3. Load. M'lA.

•)6 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

liferous (Cellariadae), and of the articulated corallines (Coral-
lina), of Keratophyta, of the Eschara, of the English corals, of
sponges, .of the Alcyonium, and of tubular corals, under which
head he describes several of the more common tubicolous
worms, which are found on our coast, and which have no rela-
tionship whatever to the other subjects of his treatise. Look-
ing back on this arrangement from our present vantage ground,
it appears disorderly and very defective, but when we reflect how
fmperfect the knowledge of species was at that period, and how
crude the notions were on the nature and use of systems, we
may find much to commend in it. Some of the chapters indeed
contain a mixture of very dissimilar things, but others may be
justly considered as so many natural genera or families, which
subsequent naturalists had merely to subdivide and name.

Linnffius — in every sense the first of systematists — published
the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758. In it the
avertebrate animals are arranged in two classes, Insecta and
Vermes, — and of the latter zoophytes, with the exception of Ac-
tinia which is placed amongst the mollusca, form the last two
orders which he named Lithophyta and Zoophyta. That we
may appreciate the nature and value of the changes proposed
subsequently to his time, it will be necessary to give the defini-
tions of his orders and genera.

I. " LITHOPHYTA Mollusca coraposita, basin solidam sedifi-

cantia.
TuBiPORA CoraUimn tubis cylindricis.
MiLT.EPORA CoraUium tubis obconicis teretibus.
Madrepora CoraUium tubis stellatis."

II. " ZOOPHYTA PlantaB vegetantes floribus aniraatis.

Isis Stirps radicata, lapidea, nuda, geniculis corneis.
GoRGONiA Stirps radicata, cornea, crustata, contlnua.
Alcyonium Stirps stuposa, corticata, contlnua.
TuBULARiA Stirps fistulosa, tunicata, subgeniculata.
Eschara Stirps papyracea, nuda, porosa.
CoRALLiNA Stirps fibrosa, crustata, artlculata : artlculls multi-

florls.
Sertularia /.V^tVjo* fibrosa, nuda, artlculata: artlculls unifloris.
Hydra Stirps subradlcata, gelatlnosa, apice florifera.
Pennatula Stirpjs libera, pennata, basl ore instructa.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 57

Tjenia Stirps libera, moniliformis, articiilata.
VoLVox Stir-ps libera, globosa, sobole nidulante." *

The precision of the definitions in this arrangement, and the
manner in which they are contrasted, is highly characteristic of
its author, but into many of the genera species are introduced,
which are not conformable to the definitions ; and some of these,
Pennatula and Hydra, for example, are grossly erroneous. The
theoretical character of the second order, and of some of its ge-
nera, might also be objected to in a matter-of-fact work ; but it
is an easy task for the student of the present sera to point out
defects in the method of the master who had to plan the way,
and who succeeded in making it level and easy to his followers.

Pallas, in 1766, embraced the Lithophyta and Zoophyta in
one order, for which he adopted the latter denomination, for he
very properly believed that the Linnsean distinctions served on-
ly to " divide the things that are in nature join'd." He sepa-
rated some spurious species of Hydra and formed them into the
genus BrachioriKS, which, though a good genus, is a duubtful
member of the order of zoophytes. His genus Antipathes, se-
vered from Gorgonia, is well defined ; and m\h equal propriety
he restored the celliferous corallines of Ellis, which Linnaeus
had mixed with the Sertularia, to a separate generic rank — Cel-
lularia. The claims of Taenia, Volvox, and Corallina to a place
amongst zoophytes were disallowed, although he has described
the species in an appendix, for he knew that Taenia properly
belonged to the intestinal worms, and Volvox to the infusorial
animalcules ; and he believed that Corallina was altogether of a
vegetable nature.

In the twelfth edition of the " Systema," published in 1767,
Linnaeus made no material improvements on his first system, but
the errors relative to the Hydra and Pennatula are corrected,
and the definitions in general are abridged and rendered less
theoretical. To the Lithophyta he added the genus Cellepora —
" corallium cellulis cavis ;" — and he followed Ellis and Pallas in
now introducing the Sponges into his second order. In this we
also find, for the first time, the genus Vorticella, which is near-
ly synonymous with the Brachionus of Pallas ; the Flustra, which

* Syst. Nat. p. 646. Halte Magdeburg. 1760,

58 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

is the same as Eschara of his preceding edition ; the Furia,
which is an apocryphal animal ; and the Chaos, which is an in-
fusory animalcule. Were we to analyze the genera we should
find, in almost every one of them, species which properly belong-
to a different class of animals, or whose characters are at vari-
ance with those assig-ned to the genus : but many of these mis-
placements were the almost necessary consequences of the then
state of knowledge relative to the beings in question.

Solander, in arranging the materials of Ellis, followed the
system of Pallas, but he introduced and placed the Actiniae at
the head of the order ; he entirely rejected all the intestinal
worms and infusory animalcules; and he amended the defini-
tions of the genera by carefully avoiding all theoretical phra-
seology. He used the term " Zoophyta" exactly in the same
sense, and with the same latitude, that it is used in the present
work.*

The method of Miiller cannot be considered as any improve-
ment on those of his predecessors, but there is an attempt after
novelty in it. He places the Actinia and the Hydra among the
MoUusca, an order full of heterogeneous things, embracing the
cuttle-fish, snails and star-fish ; and in the same order we find
the beautiful Lucernaria, one of the discoveries of this indus-
trious and excellent naturalist. The proper zoophytes he de-
nominates Cellularia, which are defined to be compound ani-
mals, enclosed in cells, and propagating by means of buds.
The genera are classed and defined as follows :

* Calcarea.

Articulata, tenera, . . Corallina.

Articulata, lapirlea, . . Isis.

Tubulosa, aggregata vel solitaria, . Tubipoka.

Foraminulosa, . . • Ckllepora.

Lamelloso-stellata, . . . Madrepora.

Pertusa poris, . . . Millepora.

** Subcornea.
Tubulosa, tenlaculis simplicibus, . Fistula bia.

Tubulosa, lentaculis cristatis, . Tubularia.

• The Natural History of .many rurious and uncommon Zoophytes, by the
late John Ellis, systematically arranged and desfribed by the late Daniel Soland-
er. I. find. 17H6. -tto.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 59

Ramosa, niida, ^ewtoCM^t* manifestis, . Sertularia.

Hamosu, incrustata, tent, inconspicuis, . Gorgonia.

*** Fungosa.

()ssiculum polypiferiim, . . Pennatula.

Suberosa, polypis stellatis, . . Alcyonium.

Stuposa, oscnlis hiantibus, . . Spongia.

Osculis atomiferis, . . . Clavaria.*

The last genus is a sort of mushroom \\hich Muller was led
to arrange among zoophytes from having witnessed the appa-
rent spontaneous movements of its sporules ; but no one has fol-
lowed him in this, ahhough, it may be remarked, that some re-
cent authors have no better reasons for their proposal to re-
move a large proportion of the aquatic algse to the animal king-
dom.

Blumenbach adopted the Linnsean class Vermes, and he also
retained the Actiniae in the order MoUusca, but the proper zoo-
phytes were differently arranged, and the alteration was unques-
tionably for the worse. The " polypes and other zoophytes
inhabitinof coral branches and similar structures" formed the or-
der Coralliu ; and his Zoophijta included only the " naked
plant-like animals without any habitations ; also the animalculse
of infusions!" The genera were the same, or nearly the same,
as the Linnoean, and followed one another apparently as their
names had risen in random series to his memory.^

About the beginning of the present century Cuvier first of all
pointed out the advantages of having our systematical arrange-
ments in harmony with anatomical structure, — of making the
one an index to the other, — of classifying animals not according
to one or two external characters which might really have little
or no influence upon their anatomy and habits, but according to
their agreement in those great systems by which the life, growth,
and propagation of creatures are upheld and carried on. When,
however, he began to arrange the animal kingdom according-
ly, the knowledge of the organization of Zoophytes was too im-
perfect to permit him to follow out his principles in this depart-

* Zoologise Danicse Prodromus, p. xxxi. Havn. 1776.

t Elements of Natural History, p. 269 and 274. Loud. 1825.

60 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

ment, and even his latest systematical attempt exhibits many de-
relictions of them. Having, at the suggestion of Pallas, establish-
ed a section of avertebrated animals for the reception of such as
exhibited in the disposition of their organs a radiated appearance,
to the whole of which he applied the term Zoophytes, he sub-
divided it into five classes, of which the last but one embraced
the subjects of the present treatise. They were named Polypes
because, from the tentacula encircling their mouth, they some-
what resembled the cuttle-fish called Polypus by the ancients ;
and they were defined to be little gelatinous animals the mouth
of which, encircled with the tentacula, lead into a stomach some-
times simple and sometimes furnished with intestines in the form
of vessels. It is in this class that we find those innumerable com-
pound animals, with a fixed and solid stem, which were so long re-
garded as marine plants. The following is a synopsis of Cuvier's
method, as it appears in the last edition of the " Regne Animal."*

Les Polypes.

Ord. I. P. CHARNUS.

Les Actinies. (Actinia, Lin.)

Actinia.

Zoanthus. Ctiv. (nov. gen.)
Les Lucernaires.

Lucernaria.

Orel. II. P. GELATINEUX.

Hydra.

Corine.

Cristatella. Cuv. (nov. gen.)

Vorticella.

Pedicellaria.

Ord. III. P. A POLYPIERS.

Fam. i. Les Polypes a tuyaux.
Tul)ipora.
Tubularia.
Sertularia.

Fam. ii. Polypes a cellules.
Cellularia.

* Paris, 18.30, Vol. iii. p. 289 el seq.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 61

Flustra.
Cellepora.
Tubiilipora.
Corallina.

Fam. iii. Les Polypes corticaux.
Tribe 1. Des Ceratophytes.

Antipatbes. ■

Govgonia.
Tribe 2. Les Lithophytes.

Isis.

JNIadrepora.

Millepora.
Tribe 3. Polypes Nageurs.

Pennatula. Subgenera — Pennatula, Cuv. Virgiilaria,
Lam. Scirpearia, Cuv. Pavonaria, Cuiu Renilla,
Lam. Veretillum, Cuv. Ombellularia, Cuv.
Tribe 4. Alcyons.

Alcyonium.

Spong-ia.

In the definitions there is throughout a certain degree of
vaofueness, or at least the absence of that finicalness, which
is so pleasing to the practical systematist ; and in the value
of the characters chosen to separate the orders and families
there is great inequality. Hydra and Corine, for example,
are more nearly allied to Tubularia and Sertularia, than
the latter are to the Ceratophytes, yet these are placed in one
and the same, and the Hydra in a separate order. Had the
Ceratophytes been elevated to the rank of an order, and the Ma-
drepora been removed to the Polypes chamus, the system would
have been improved, and no very obvious alliances broken. In
the subordinate parts of the system there are many misplace-
ments of the subgenera, as the genera of his contemporaries were
named, of which we may instance the Campanularia which is
placed under Tubularia of Linnaeus, to which, however, it has
certainly much less affinity than to the Sertularia, where it had
always hitherto been assigned.

In 1810, Lamouroux of Caen presented to the Academy of
Sciences of Paris a new classification of the flexible polypidoms;
and it would appear that Lamarck was engaged at the same time

Cy2 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

in similar labours; but, proceeding on different principles, they
arrived at very different results. The anatomy of the workers
or polypes was, according to Lamouroux, so imperfectly ascer-
tained, and from their situation as well as from their minute-
ness, so little within attainment, that it seemed hopeless to pro-
cure materials for a classification from that source, and he con-
fined his attention solely to the polypidoms, on whose composi-
tion he founded his primary divisions. Lamarck, although he
also confined his examination to the polypidoms, took higher
ground : he maintained that as these were secreted by the poly-
pes and formed on and by them, a sameness in the structure of
the one necessarily implied a sameness in the structure of the
other; that in fact we might as safely infer a sameness of struc-
ture or dissimilarity from the various configurations of the poly-
pe-cells and coral, as we could from an actual inspection of the
animated tenants themselves. The experience of a few years
has shown either that Lamarck's examination of the coral was
hasty, or that his principle was erroneous, for his arrangement
is far from being in harmony with a physiological one, and,
although greatly superior to Lamouroux's, yet is not the less ar-
tificial ; there being even in some of his genera, species whose
polypes are widely at variance with each other. I do not mean
to trace the systems of either of these authors through their va-
rious changes, from their first promulgation to their perfection ;*
an outline of them in their latest state is sufficient for our purpose.

System of LAMOURoux.f (182L)

Division I.
POLYPIDOMS FLEXIBLE, OR NOT ENTIRELY STONY.

Section 1.
PoLYPiERS CELLULIFERES. — Polypes in non-irritable cellules.
Ord. I. Celleporees. — Tubulipore. Cellepore.
Ord. II. Flustrees. — Berenice. Pheruse. Elzerine. Flustre.
Electre.

* Blainville has given a history of all the proposed classificatiors in chrono-
logical series in his Manuel d'Actinologie, which the reader may consult with
advantage.

t The primary sections of this systematist may have been borrowed from J.
E. Roques de Maumont Sec Blainr. Man. d'Actinol. p. 2-3.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 6;i

Ord. III. Cellariees — Cellarie. Caberee. Canda. Acamarchis

Crisie. Menipcc. Loricaire. Eucratee. Alocto. Lafaee.

Hippothoe. Aetee.
Ord. IV. Sertulariees. — Pasythee. Amathie. Nemertesie. Aglao-

phenie. Dynamene. Sertulaire. Idie. Entalophore. Clytie.

Laomcdee. Thoee. Salacie. Cymodocee. Aniphitoite.
Ord. V. Tubulariees. — Tibiane. Nais. Tubulaire. Cornulaire. Te-

lesto. Liagore. Neoraeris.

Section II.
PoLYPiERS CAtciFERES — A calcareous substance mixed with the
animal matter or covering it, apparent in all its states.
Ord. VI. Acetabulariees — Acetabulaire. Polyphyse.
Ord. VII. Corallinees. — Galaxaure. Nesee. Janie. Coralline. Cy-
raopolie. Amphiroe. Haliraede. Udotee.

Section III.
PoLYPiERS CoRTiciFERES. — Composed of two substances, an exte-
rior and enveloping, named the bark or crust ; the other, called
the axis, placed in the centre and sustaining the tirst.
Ord. VIII. Spongiees — Ephydatie. Eponge.

Ord. IX. Gorgoniees .4nadyomene. Antipathe. Gorgone.

Plexaure. Eunicee. Municee- Primnoe. Corail.
Ord. X. Isidees. — Melitee. Mopsee. Isis.

Division II.
POLYFIDOMS ENTIPtELY STONY AND INFLEXIBLE.

Section I.
PoLVPiERs FORAMiNES. — Cells small, perforated, almost tubular,
without internal plates.
Ord. XI. Escharees. — Adeone. Eschare. Retepore. Discopore.

Diastopore. Obalie. Celleporaire.
Ord. XII. IVIilleporees. — Ovulite. Reteporite. Lunulite. Orbulite.
Ocellaire. IVIelobesie. Eudee. Alveolite. Distichopore.
Hornere. Krusensterne. Tilesie. Theonee. Chrysaore. Mil-
lepore. Terebellaire. Spiropore. Idmouee.

Section II.
PoLYPiERs LAMELLiFERES. — Stony, the cells in the form of lamel-
lated stars, or waved furrows garnished with lamellae.

64 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

Ord. XIII. Caryophyllaires.— Caryophyllie. Turbinolopse. Tur-
binolie. Cyclolite. Fongie.

Ord. XIV. Meandriiiees —Pavone. Apsendesie. Agarice. Mean-
di-ine. Monticulaire.

Ord. XV. Astrees.— Echinopore. Explanaire. Astree.

Ord! XVI. Madreporees— Porite. Seriatopore. Pocillopore. Ma-
drepore. Ociiline. Styline. Sarcinule.

Section III.
PoLYPiERs TUBULES.— Stony, formed of distinct and parallel tubes.
Ord. XVII. Tubiporees.— Catenipore. Favosite. Eunomie. Tubi-

pore.

Division HI-

POLYPIDOMS CARNOSE, MORE OR LESS IRRITABLE
AND WITHOUT A CENTRAL AXIS.

Ord. XVni. Alcyonees.— Alcyon. Lobulaire. Ammothee. Xenia.

Anthelie. Alcyonidee. Alcyonelle. Hallirhoe.
Ord. XIX. Polyclinees — Distome. SigiUine. Synoique. Aplide.

Polycline. Diderane. Eucelie. Botrylle.
Ord. XX. Actinaires.-Chenendopore. Hypalime. Lymnoree.

Pelagie. Montlivaltie. Isaure. leree.

Remark on this system seems almost unnecessary. The
student will deem it too complex with all its sections and sub-
sections ; and the experienced naturalist will at once eschew it
as only tending to embroil, and confuse and nulhfy all the know-
ledae which has been acquired on the structure and physiology
of the remarkable creatures which are here so elaborately mis-
arranged. Animals which the admirable anatomical researches
of Savignv had proved, by the consent of all, to belong to a dif-
ferent category, are here forcibly degraded to their Linnaean
rank, and stand in juxtaposition with true zoophytes on the
one hand, and doubtful ones on the .other ; and, perhaps to
make room for these pretenders, some rightful claimants, as
Hydra and Pennatula, are altogether excluded : some genera
so nearly aUied that their distinction may be questioned, for ex-
ample, Flustra and Eschara, stand in different divisions at wide
distances ; while others, which have not one character of im-
portance to connect, and every thing to dissever them, are placed

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 65

almost in juxtaposition, as the Sponges and the Gorgoniae. The
merits of Lamouroux have always appeared to me to have been
much overrated : it is a very easy matter, by arbitrarily fixing
on this or that character, to set in order any given number of
objects in any pattern we may choose, and Lamouroux had no
higher notion of the character of a systematist than this, and
acted accordingly. It is very true that he named and distinguish-
ed many genera, but who, on critically examining these genera,
will deny that he proceeded without caution and without judg-
ment,— determined apparently to make as many as could be
made that his successors might be spared the unprofitable task
of coining and inventing names ! *

System of Lamarck. (1816.)

Class POLYPI.
Order I. P. ciliati.
Polypes without tentacula, but having near the mouth, or at its ori-
fice, vibratile cilise or ciliated and rotatory organs which agitate

or whirl the water.

I. ^gc«Jo».— ViBRATiLES.— Rattulus, Tiichocerca, Vaginicola.

II. Section. Rotiferes. — FoUiculina, Brachionus, Furcularia,

Urceolaria, Vorticella, Tubicolaria.

Order II. P. denudati.
Polypes with tentacula, without an envelope or polypidom, and fixed
either permanently or spontaneously.

Hydra Coryne — Pedicellaria — Zoantha.

Order III. P. vaginati.
Polypes with tentacula, invariably fixed in an inorganic polypidom
which envelopes them ; and forming, in general, compound animals.

* Polypidoms of homogeneous composition.
I. Section. Polypiers fluviatiles.— Difflugia, Cristatella,
Spongilla, Alcyonella.

* BlainviUe in criticising Lamouroux's latest work, says—" Nous nous bor-
nerons a dire que Lamouroux a encore considerablement augraente le nombre
des genres, surtout parniiles polypiers pierreux, pour y placer un grand nombre
de corps organises fossiles, trouves dans le calcaire a polypiers de Caen, et que
malheureusement la plupart de ces genres sent mal caracterises, ce dent je me
suis assure directement sur les objets memes qui out servi a ses observations.
Man. d'Actinol. p. 54.

06 CLASSIFICATIOXS OF ZOOPHYTES.

II. Section. Polypiers vaginiformes. * Polypidoms naked, not

varnished nor encrusted on the exterior. (J) Cells terminal

Plumatella, Tubularia, Cornularia, Campanularia. (2)

Cells lateral — Sertularia, Antennularia, Plumularia, Seria-

laria. ** Polypidoms varnished or slightly crusted on the

exterior. Liriozoa, Cellaria, Anguinaria, Dichotoraaria,
Tibiana, Acetabulum, Polyphysa.

III. Section. PoLYPiERS A RESEAU. — Flustra, Tubulipora, Dis-

copora, Cellepora, Eschara, Adeona, Retepora, Alveolites,
Ocellaria, Dactylopora.

IV. Section. Polypiers foramines. — Ovuhtes, Lunulites, Or-

bulites, Distichopora, Millepora, Favosites, Catenipora, Tu-
bipora.

V. Section. Polypiers lamelliferes. — * Stars terminal — Sty-

lina, Sarcinula, Caryophyllia, Turbinolia, Cyclolites, Fungia.
** Stars lateral or spread over the surface — Pavonia, Aga-
ricia, Meandrina, Monticularia, Echinopora, Explanaria,
Astrea, Porites, Pocillopora, Madrepora, Seriatopora, Ocu-

lina.

VI. Section. Polypiers corticiferes — Corallium, Melitaea,

Isis, Antipathes, Gorgonia, Corallina.

VII. Section. Polypiers empates Penicillus, Flabellaria,

Spongia, Tethia, Geodia, Alcyonium.

Order IV. P. tubiferi.
Polypes united on a common fleshy living body, either simple or lob-
ed or branched, and attached by its base : no external polypidom ;
no solid internal axis ; the surface loaded with numerous tubiform
little cylinders, rarely entirely retractile. Mouth terminal ; ten-
tacula 8, pectinated ; no anus ; 8 longitudinal semi-partitions un-
derneath the stomach ; 8 intestines of two kinds ; 6 groups of gem-
mfB resembling as many ovaries.

Anthelia, Xenia, Ammothea, Lobularia.

Order V. P. natantes.
Polypes united on a common fi-ee elongated fleshy and organic body,
enveloping a cartilaginous almost bony and sometimes stony inor-
ganic axis. Tentacula set in a radiating manner round the mouth
of each polype.
Veretillum, Funiculina, Pennatula, Renilla, Virgularia, Encrinus,

Umbellularia.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 67

In the outline this system is not very materially different from
that of Cuvier, the deviations being sometimes for the better
and sometimes for the worse. If the Polypi ciliati are to be
numbered amongst proper zoophytes it is for the better to have
them placed in a separate order ; but Zoantha is badly associat-
ed with the Hydra, Coryne and the spurious Pedicellaria. The
Polypi vayinati, considered as an order, is a most heterogene-
ous collection ; and the manner in which it is subdivided into
sections, although in general excellent and worthy of commen-
dation, is yet far from unexceptionable ; and these exceptions
are very obvious in the first, sixth and seventh sections, in which
apolvpous, or it may be vegetable productions, are mingled with
real zoophytes. The characters which divide the Polypi tuhiferi
from the natantes are not of sufficient importance to be consider-
ed ordinal, (it would have been preferable to have made them fa-
milies in one order) ; and the location of the Encrinus in the latter
is the result of a most unlucky conjecture.* As a systematist, how-
ever, Lamarck has few equals, and probably, with the exception
of Linnaeus, not a superior : there is no vagueness nor ambiguity
about him, — all is clear, well arranged and ordered, and his
characters, which are usually well chosen, are defined in expres-
sive words and in a felicitous manner. These advantages have
given his System great currency, and though the favour shewn to
it has somewhat abated, it still holds its place, and is in frequent
use, with those who are engaged in arranging local catalogues and
museums.

Dr Fleming is the only British naturalist who has attempted

* According to Lamarck Nature could not have done othei-wise than she has
done, and we are repeatedly assured that his System is a naked exposition of her
necessitated steps in calling organized beings into existence ! After announcing
with an almost ludicrous degree of confidence and complacency, that this ficti-
tious Power can only complicate animal organizations in successive gradation, he
adds, — " La connaissance de cette v^rite me suffit ; je reconnais le veritable rang
des polypes, comme celui des infusoires ; j'aper9ois les rapports quiles lient les
uns aux autres, ainsi que ceux qui lient les families entr'elles ; enfin, je con9ois
les limites que la nature n'a pu franchir dans la composition de I'organization de
ces animaux, d'apres celles que je decouvre dans ceux des classes superieures.
Je puis done dire positivement, a I'egard des polypes, comme a celui de bien
d'autres, ce que la nature n'a pas pu faire." Anim. s. Vert. ii. 8 — What a hu-
miliating commentary and lesson have the discoveries of a few short years af-
forded on this passage !

68 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

an original classification of Zoophytes, and although no one,
from his previous studies and important discoveries relative to
their structure and functions, ever came better prepared for the
task, yet the system he framed is assuredly not superior to those
of his predecessors. The Actinise and Lucernaria were collocated
with the Radiata acalejjha or sea-jellies, and the Zoophyta divid-
ed into four orders as follow:*

I. Carnosa.
Polypi connected with a fleshy substance.
Keeping this definition in view, who would have expected to find
Sponges and Corallines and Madrepores under this order ? and yet
they are there in defiance of the definition. The following is a sy-
nopsis of this order —

I. Free ; marine ; moving by the contraction or expansion of the
Jleshy part ; form symmet7'ical ; axis of the body supported by a

bone contained in a sac.

Pennatula.
Virgularia.

II. Fixed or stationary,

A. Polypiferous matter covering a solid axis.

a. Axis with stellular discs LAMELLiFERiE.

b- Stellular discs terminal.
Sarcinula.
Lithostrotion.
Caryophyllea.
Turbinolia.
Cyclotites.
b b. Stellular discs aggregated.
Explanaria.
Astrea.
Porites.
Pocillopora.
a a. Axis destitute of cellular discs.

b. Axis corneous and flexible ; polypiferous basis cre-
taceous ; the axis with spines,
c. Polypi developed. — GorgoniadjE.
Gorgonia.
Primnoa.
c c. Polypi not developed. — Corallinad^.
Jania.

" History of British Animals, Edin. 1828. 8vo.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 69

Corallina.
Halimeda.
b b. Axis stony.
Isis.
B. Polypiferous basis destitute of a continuous solid axis.
a. Polypi developed.

b. Polypi with 8 tentacula ; the base fibrous.
Lobularia.
Cydoniura.
Cliona.
b b. Polypi with tentacula exceeding- 8 in number ;
basis nearly uniform.
Alcyonium.
Cristatella.
a a. Polypi not developed. — Sposgiad^.
Tethya,
Halichondria.
Spongia.
Grantia.

II. Cellulifera.
Polypi lodged in calcareous cells imperforate at the

BASE.

A. Substance rigid, stony.

I. Cells in the form of minute pores, imbedded — Mille-

PORADiE.

Millepora.

II. Cells tubular, and produced beyond the surface. — Tu-

BIPORAD^.

Tubipora.
Favosites.
Tubulipora.
Discopora.
Filipora.
Terebellmna.
III. Cells uti'icular, adjacent, or superimposed. — Escha-

RADJE.

Eschara.
Retepora.
Cellepora.
Berenicea.

70 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

Hippothoa.
Alecto.
A A. Substance flexible. — Flustrad^.
Farcimia.
Flustra.

III. Thecata.
Polypi surrounded by a membranaceous tube, covering

THE subdivisions OF THEIR COMPOUND BODY.

A. Sheath slightly calcareous ; cells single, or in rows.

I. Sheath slightly calcareous, cells enlarged, in rows, united or
single. — Cellariad^.
a. Cells united.

b. Cells with the orifices opening on the upper surface.
Cellularia.
Tricellaria.
Crisia.
b b. Cells in pairs, attached by the back, the orifices
with opposite aspects.
Notamia.
a a. Cells single.

Eucratia.
Anguinaria.
A A. Sheath membranaceous, cells enlarged externally and lateral,

SERTULARIADiE.

I. Base of the cells broad, coalescing with the stem.
a. Cells on opposite sides of the stem.
Sertularia.
Dynamena.
Thuiaria.
a a. Cells unilateral.

Antennularia.
Plumularia.
Serialaria.
II. Base of the cells narrow, or pedunculated.
Campanulai'ia.
Valkeria.
Cymodocia.
AAA. Sheath membranaceous ; the cells are the simple extremities
of the branches. — Tubulariad^e.
Tubularia.
Plumatella.

4

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 71

IV. NUDA.

Polypi naked, the mouth with marginal tentacula.
Coryna.
Hydra.

Latreille's method may next be noticed. He, following La-
marck, divides the animal kingdom into three primary sections,
the last of which is denominated Acephala, which, with various
other classes, includes all the Zoophyta. The Actinia and Lu-
cernaria constitute a distinct class — Helianthoida — which is
placed between the sea-stars (Echinodermata), and sea-jellies,
(Acalepha), being superior to the latter and to zoophytes by
their organization, in which Spix had detected a nervous system.
The Polypes follow the sea-jelhes, and are subdivided thus :

Order I. Brachiostoma.
Month encircled with tentacula, often relractile.
Family I. Calamides. Pennatula, Virgularia, &c.

• II. Alcvonea. Lobularia, Alcyonium, S:c.

III. Alveolaria. This family is portioned into tribes.

1. LamelUfera — the P. lamelliferes of Lamarck.

2. Foraminosa — the P. foramines of Lamarck.

3. Corticifera — the P. corticiferes of Lamarck, with

the genera Penicillus and Flabellaria.

4. Reticularia — the P. a resean of Lamarck.

5. Vaginiformia — the P. vaginiformes of Lamarck.

6. Spongites — the sea and fluviatile sponges.
IV. Limnopolypi. 1. Tentacula i-etractile ; a sheath —

Plumatella, Cristatella, Difflugia. 2. Tenta-
cula non-retractile ; no sheath — Pedicellaria,
Coryne, Hydra.

Order II. Trichostoma.
No tentacula at the mouth, which are replaced by rotatory organs or

cilice.
Family I. Cancriformia — Brachionus, Follicularia, Tul)icolaria.

II. Campanulata — Vorticella, Urceolaria, Furcnlaria.

HI. Caudata — Vaginicola, Tricocercus, Ratulus.

Not having access to the original works, I pass over in silence
the methods of Oken, Schweigger, and Van der Hoven, the

72 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

more willingly that they are but modifications, to no material
extent, of one or other of those which preceded them, are in
no respect preferable, and evolve no new principle, for surely
the assumption on Oken's part that the orders, families, and ge-
nera in this class, as in the animal kingdom generally, are re-
gulated by a law which throws them into quaternary sections
— the number 4 exercising throughout a paramount influence
— scarcely deserves this praise. It is different with the attempt
of Rapp, Professor of Anatomy at Tubingen, who in 1829
published a small work in German on the natural history of the
Actiniae. He proposed to divide the zoophytes, understanding
the term in the same restricted sense that I do, into two great or-
ders, the ExoARiA and Endoaria, — the former producing their
ova or reproductive gemmules from the exterior, while in the latter
" the ova are produced in the interior of the body, and are
either conveyed outwards by means of oviducts which open by
separate orifices, or they are discharged by the mouth." The
distinction here first pointed out is a very important one, but
in common with all single characters is of itself insufficient, and
if rigorously adhered to leads to artificial and unnatural com-
binations. The Exoaria for example has all its members
well and distinctly affined, embracing only three families, 1. the
Hydra ; *2. Curynea, consisting of the genera Sertularia, Tubu-
laria and Coryne ; and 3. Millepora^ limiting probably this de-
nomination to M. triivcata. The Endoaria embraces a wider
range — the Alcyonea equivalent to the Polypes tubiferes of
Lamarck ; the Tupipora ; the Corallia including the genera
Corallium, Gorgonia, Isis and Antipathes ; the Pennatulce ;
Zoanthes ; and Madrejjores with the subdivisions which have
been introduced by Lamarck. * So far the order labours under
little error, or is perhaps unexceptionable, but its definition
would entitle us to place in it also the Escharidae, the Celle-
pores, and Lymnopolypi, which are all very alien to the families
which Rapp seems to have had too exclusively under his view.
The only other classification I shall notice is Blainville's, —
the most elaborate of any ; and this author, as it appears to me,
is the first who allowed the anatomy of the Polypes, abstractedly

* See Edin. Joiirii. of Geogr. and Nat. Science, ii. p. 406, and Blainv. Man.

d'Aetinol. p. 59.

3

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 73

considered, to have its due influence on our systems. Notwith-
standing, however, Bhiinville's unquestionable merits, his very
defective acquaintance with species will ever prevent him be-
coming a first-rate systematist : he may sketch the outline, the
details he cannot supply, and his attempt has exposed him to
numerous errors : he is too fond of generalizations where his
facts are few and specifical ; he wants the necessary neatness
and brevity of definition, and he evinces everywhere such a to-
tal disregard to the old nomenclature that his system is not like-
ly to become popular, or to be generally adopted. Many of his
alterations are excellent, and must meet the approval of all, for
surely no one will henceforth reinstate the apolypous sponges
and vegetating corallines, which he has so properly separated,
to a rank amongst proper polypes ; and his removal of the Ma-
drepores from the compound hydracolous polypidoms to a level
with the Actiniae seems to be equally judicious, and beyond fu-
ture cavil.

System of H. M. D. De Blainville. (1834.)

Class— ZOANTHA.

Body regular, resembling- a flower, more or less elongated, free or
fixed, very contractile, furnished with an intestinal canal without
distinct parietes, and with a single large terminal aperture encircled
with multiform tentacula, always hollow, and in communication
with the musculo-cavernous parenchyma of the skin.

The class is divided into three families :

The Soft — Actiniadse. Lucernaria, Actinia, &c.
The Coriaceous — Zoanthus.

The Calcareous— divided into 1. the MadrephylUcea, in which are
the genera Turbinolia and Caryophyllaea : and 2. the Ma-
drepores.

Class— POLYPIARIA.

Animals like the Hydra, viz. in general slender, furnished with a
single series of filiform and not numerous tentacula, naked or con-
tained in multiform cells (but never lamelliferous), clustered so as
to form a polypidom very variable in shape and structure.
Sub-Class I. P. SoLiDA — Containing {he hxmWes Millepores, of
which there is no British genus amongst recent zoophytes ;
and TuhuUporea which contains Tubulipora only.

74

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

Sub-Class II. P. Membranacea — in which are the three families
— 1. P. opercuUfera, of which the British genera are Es-
chara, Retepora, Cellepora, Berenicea, Discopora,and Mem-
branipora ; 2. P. cellaricea contains Flustra, Cellaria, Tri-
cellaria, Acamai-chis, Bicellaria, Crisia, Gemicellaria, Uni-
cellaria, Catenicella ; 3. Ser'tulariccea — arranged~thus : —

( Anguinaria.

'tubular, with a rounded aperture } Tibiana.

(^ Tubularia.
f Coryne.

campanulate < Campanularia.

Cells, -^ (^Laomedea.

, J Serialaria.

I Plumiilaria.

not tubulous,

i Sertularia.

paired -| Biseriaria.

(^ Dynamena.

7 X- 1 i. 1 1 J fCymodocia.

denticulate, whorled -\ \ ^ ^ ■

[ Antennularia.

denticulate, scattered Thoa.

Sub-Class III.
Sub-Class IV.

P. DUBiA — Cristatella, Pluraatella, Alcyonella.
P. NUDA — Hydra.

Class— ZOOPHYTARIA.

Body rather large and somewhat variable in shape, furnished with a

single circle of pinnated tentacula of determinate number ; the

ovaries internal.

Family 1. Tuhijiorcea — divided into two sections, (1.) envelope
fleshy — with the genera Cuscutaria, which is the
same as Valkeria of Fleming, Telesto, Cornularia,
and Claviilaria, of which last three we have no na-
tive species : (2.) envelope calcareous — Tubipora.

Family 2. Corallia — Coi'allium, Isis, Gorgonia, Eunicea, Prim-
noa, Antipathes, &c.

Family 3. Pennahdaria — represented by Pennatula of Lin. with
the various genera into which it has been por-
tioned.

Family 4. Alcyonaria — Lobnlaria, Alcyonium, Cydoniura, Pulmo-
nellum, Cliona.

Type II.

AMORPHOZOA.

Bodies organized, animal, shapeless or without a determinate form,

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 75

pierced with oscula and numerous pores, but without mouths or
distinct individual animals, always adherent, and composed of a fi-
bro-gelatinous substance, intermixed or not with calcareous or si-
liceous spicula, with internal buds or gemmules not localized.
This embraces the sponges only, divided into the following- genera —
Alcyonellum, Spongia, Calcispongia, Halispongia, Spongilla, Geo-
dia, Cseloptychium, Siphonia, Myrmeciura, Scyphia, Eudea, Hallir-
hoa, Hippelimus, Cnenimidium, Lymnorea, Chenendopora, Tragos,
Manon, Jerea, Tethium.

PSEUDOZOA.

Organized bodies not animal but vegetable.

Class I. Calciphytje.
Family 1 . Corallince — Corallina, Jania, and Flabellaria are British

genera.
Family 2. Fucoidece — of which there are no native examples.

When some years since I planned this history of our native
zoophytes these were all the classifications that the books ac-
cessible to me furnished for my purpose, but their imperfections
and incongruities had been made so apparent in the progress of
discovery, that I was induced to devise that one for my guid-
ance which is here adopted. This method, drawn up with-
out any foreknowledge of it, is in its main features similar to that
proposed by Audouin and Milne-Edwards ;* and from this co-
incidence I feel the more assured that it will be found in closer
harmony with the structure of the animals than any of its pre-
decessors, and not less difficult in its practical applications. It
is then proposed to divide the British zoophytes in the first
place into the following sub-classes and orders, whose families
and genera will be found characterized under their respective
heads.

Sub-Class I. RADIATED ZOOPHYTES.

Body contractile in every part, symmetrical ; mouth and anus one ;
gemmiparous and oviparous.
Order I. Hydroida. Polypes compound, rarely single and naked,

* Recherches pour servir a I'Histoire Nat. du Littoral de la France, Vol. i.
p. 73—6,— Ann. des Sciences Nat. Part. Zool. vi. 1.5, 16 ; and Lam. Anira. s.
Vert. ii. 104. 2de edit. Paris, 1836.

76 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES.

the mouth encircled with roug-hish filiform tentacula ; stomach with-
out proper parietes ; intestine ; anus ; rei^roductive gemmules
pullulating- from the body and naked, or contained in external vesi-
cles. Poli/pidcms horny, fistular, more or less phytoidal, fixed, ex-
ternal. Marine, excepting Hydra., which is lacustrine.

Order II. Asteroida. Polypes compound, the mouth encircled
with 8 fringed tentacula; stomach membranous, with dependant
vasculiform appendag-es ; intestine ; anus ; reproductive gem-
mules produced interiorly. Polype-mass variable in form, free or
permanently attached, carnose, generally strengthened with a horny
or calcareous axis enveloped with the gelatinous or creto-gelatinous
crust in which the polype-cells are immersed, and which open on the
surface in a starred fashion with eight rays. Marine.

Order III. Helianthoida. Polypes single, free or permanently
attached, fleshy, naked or encrusted with a calcareous Polypidom,
the upper surface of which is crossed with radiating lamellae ; mouth
encircled with tubulous tentacula ; stomach membranous, plaited ;
intestine ; anus ; oviparous, the ovaries internal. Marine.

Sub-Class II. MOLLUSCAN ZOOPHYTES.

Pody non-contractile, and nan- symmetrical ; mouth and anus
separate ; gemmiparous and oviparous.

Order IV. Ascidioida. Polypes aggregate, the mouth encircled
with filiform ciliated retractile tentacula ; a distinct stomach, with
a curved intestine terminating in an anus near the mouth ; ova in-
ternal. Polypidoms very variable, — either horny, fistular and con-
fervoid, or calcareous, membranous, or fibro-gelatinous, formed of
cells connected and arranged in a determinate and usually quin-
cuncial manner. Marine and lacustrine.

Additional Note.
The only extensive series of experiments we have on the composition of
Polypidoms are those of Mr Hatchett, published in the Philosophical Transac-
tions for 1800, and the subsequent progress of zoological and chemical science
requires a new investigation of the subject. The general results of Mr Hatch-
ett's experiments are, " that the Madrepores and Millepores are formed of a ge-
latinous or membranaceous substance, hardened by carbonate of lime, the differ-
ence consisting only in the mode in which these materials are combined : that
in the Tubipora, Flustra and Corallina, some phosphate of lime is mixed with
the carbonate of lime : that in the Isis the basis is a regularly organized mem-
branaceous, cartilaginous and horny substance, hardened by carbonate of lime,
one species only (the Isis ochracea) yielding also a small proportion of phos-
phate of lime. That the hardening substance of the Gorgonia nobUis is like-
wise the carbonate of lime, with a small portion of phosphate ; but that the
matter forming the membranaceous basis consists of two parts, the interior being

o

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ZOOPHYTES. 77

gelatinous, and the external a complete membrane, so formed as to cover the stem
in the manner of a sheath or tube. That the other Gorgonife consist of a horny
stem coated by a membrane, which is hardened by carbonate of lime. That the
sponges are of a natme similar to the horny stems of the Gorgoniee, and only
differ from these and from each other by the quality of texture. And lastly,
that the Alcyonia are likewise composed of a soft flexible membranaceous sub-
stance, very similar to the cortical part of some of the GorgonicC ; and in like
manner slightly hardened by carbonate, mixed with a small portion of phosphate
of lime.

" From this mass of evidence we collect, in general, that the varieties of bone,
shell, coral, and the numerous tribe of Zoophytes with which the last are con-
nected, only differ in composition by the nature and quantity of the hardening
or ossifying principle, and by the state of the substance with which this princi-
ple is mixed or connected ; the gluten, or jelly, which cements the particles of
carbonate or phosphate of lime, and the membrane, cartilage, or horny substance
which serves as a basis, appearing to be only modifications of the same sub-
stance, which progressively graduates from a viscid liquid, or gluten, into a ge-
latinous substance, which again, by increased inspissation, and by the more or
less perfect degrees of organic arrangement, forms the varieties of membrane,
cartilage, and horn, which, it seems, form the peculiar differences of the several
species." Abst. Phil. Trans, i. 25-26. There is a very full analysis of Hatch-
ett's paper in Thomson's Syst. of Chem. v. p. 539, et seq. The paper itself
will be found in Phil. Trans, abridg. xviii. p. 706.

Raspail has ascertained that a large proportion of iron enters into the com-
position of the Alcyonella, which he thinks may be derived from the habitat, the
zoophyte developing itself upon ferruginous rocks. The iron holds the same po-
sition in the polypidom, that the carbonate of lime does in the Oculinae, or the
crystals of silex in the sponges. Its great proportional quantity may be esti-
mated from the following experiment " Un fragment sec du Polypier faisait

devier de trois degres la nouvelle aiguille aimantee, construite par notre collegue,
M. Saigey, quoique ce fragment ne presentat a raiguille qu'une surface d'un cen-
timetre environ. Cette deviation paraitra enorme si Ton veut se rappeler que
I'Alcyonelle est une substance spongieuse extraordinairement legere ; ajoutes a
I'importance de ce resultat que le fer parait y exister a I'etat de trioxide, puisqu'
avant comme apres I'incineration, la substance est egalement rougeatre, et qu'en
consequence son influence sur I'aiguille aimantee serait infiniment faible, si le fer
existait en faible quantite dans son tissu lache et spongieux." — Mem. de la Soc.
d'Hist. Nat. iv. p. 119.

" Non tamen, post tot ac tantos scriptores, pigebit meam quibusdam locis
posuisse sententiam. Neque enim me cujusquam sectae, velut quadam super-

stitione imbutus, addixi : sicut ipse pliurium in unum confero inventa,

ubicumque ingenio non erit locus, curse testimonium meruisse contentus." —
QuintiUan. iii. i.

BRITISH ZOOPHYTES.

PART II.

ZOOPHYTA HyDROIDA.

Fig. 8.

Plumularia Catharina.

" Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race,

" Which science doubting, knows not where to place ;

" On shell or stone is dropp'd the embryo seed,

" And quickly vegetates a vital breed."— Cra66e.

" Interpone tiiis interdum gaudia curis,
" Ut possis animo quemvis Sufferre laborem."'

Catullus.

" Early habits have made me prefer the entertainment resulting from the ex-
position of the beauties of Nature, and the delight to be derived from examining
the works of the Creator, in which infinite wisdom and intelligence are dis-
played, to all other amusements." — Sir Everard Home.

" The works of the Lord are great, and sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein." — Psalmist.

" And many disappointments could not cure
" This born obliquity, or break the lure
" Which this strong passion spread."

H. Taylor.

" Whate'er you study, in whate'er you sweat,

" Indulge your taste

" He chooses best, whose labour entertains
" His vacant fancy most."

Armstrong.

ZOOPHYTA BRITANNICA.

ORDER I.
Z. HYDROIDA.

Character.
Polypes compound, rarely single and naked, the mouth encir-
cled ivith roughishjiliform tentacida ; stomach without proper pa-
rietes ; intestine ; anus ; reproductive gemmules pullulating

from the body and naked, or contained in external vesicles.

Polypidoms horny, Jistular, more or less phytoidal, fixed, external.

Observations.

" As for your pretty little seed-cups or vases, they are a
sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in su-
peradding an elegance of form to most of her works, wherever
you find them. How poor and bungling are all the imitations
of art ! When I have the pleasure of seeing you next, we will
sit down, nay kneel down if you will, and admire these things."*"
Thus did Hogarth — our great moral painter — write to Ellis in
evident reference to the zoophytes of the present order ; and he
must indeed be more than ordinarily dull and insensate who can
examine them without catching some of the enthusiasm of the
artist. They excel all other zoophytical productions in delica-
cv and the graceful arrangement of their forms, some borrowing
the character of the prettiest marine plants, others assuming the
semblance of the ostrich-plume, while the variety and elegance
exhibited in the figures and sculpture of their miniature cups
and chalices is only limited by the number of their species.

The Hydroida vary from a few lines to upwards of a foot in

* Lin. Corresp. Vol. ii. p. 44.
F

82 ZOOPHYTA HYDKOIDA.

height. They are all, with the exception of the hydra or fresh-
water polype, marine productions, and are found attached to
rocks, shells, sea-weed, other corallines, and to various shell-fish.
Many of them appear to be indiscriminate in their choice of the
object, but others again make a decided preference. Thus
Thuiaria thuja prefers the valves of old shells, Thoa helicina is
more partial to the larger univalves, Antennularia antennina
grows on rocks, Campanularia genieulata delights to cover the
broad frond of the tangle with a fairy forest peopled with its
myriads of busy polypes, while the Sertularia pumila rather loves
the more common and coarser wracks. The choice may in part
be dependent on their habits, for such as are destined to live in
shallow water, or on a shore exposed by the reflux of every tide,
are in general vegetable parasites ; while the species which
spring up in the deep seas must select between rocks, corallines
or shells, the depths at which they are found being too great for
the veofetation of sea-weed.*

The polypidoms are confervoid and more or less divided, the
ramifications being disposed in a variety of elegant plant-like
forms. The stem and branches are alike in texture, slender,
horny, fistular, and almost always jointed at short and regular
intervals, the joint being a mere break in the continuity of the
sheath without any character of a proper hinge, and evidently
formed by regular periodical interruptions in the growth of the
polypidoms. Along their sides, or at the extremities, we find
the denticles or cup-like cells of the polypes arranged in a de-
terminate order, either sessile or elevated on a stalk, (Fig. 9, a.)
Though of the same substance, the cell is something more than
a simple expansion of the stem or branch, for near its base there
is a distinct partition or diaphragm on which the body of the
polype rests, with a plain or tubulous perforation in the centre,
through which the connection between the individual polype and

* Lamouroux says, — " We find some polypidoms placed always on the south-
ern slopes of rocks and never on that towards the east, west, or north. Others,
on the contrary, grow only on these exposures, and never on the south. Some-
times their position is varied according to latitude, and the shores inclined to-
wards the south, in temperate or cold countries, produce the same species as the
northern exposures in equatorial regions ; in general their branches appear di-
rected towards the main sea."— Corall. Flex. Introd. p. L.

ZOOPHYTA HYUROIDA.

83

the common medullary pulp is retained, (Fig. 9, h.) * Besides
the cells there are found, at certain seasons, a larger sort of ve-
sicles, readily distinguished from the others by their size and
the irregularity of their distribution.— The more robust tribes
grow erect, and, beuig flexible and elastic, yield readily to the
waves and currents ; but some of the very delicate species avoid
a shock for which they are unequal by creeping along the surface.

Fiff. 9.

The polypidoms, when dried, are for the most part of a yel-
lowish or horn colour. " When they are immersed in water,
they recover the same form they appeared in when fresh in the
sea ; and soon become filled with the liquid. This gives them
a semitransparent amber colour, and makes them very elastic.""!*
Their material appears to be analogous to horn or condensed

• Lister, in Phil. Trans. 1834, p. 371.
t Ellis, English Corallines, p. 3.

84 ZOOPHYTA HYDROIDA.

albumen, which is moulded into a homogeneous investing sheath,
for the protection of the semifluid pulpousbody. It seems to be in
fact a sort of hardened epidermis, at first in contact and partial ad-
hesion with the living interior pulp, from which it is subsequent-
ly detached, in the natural progress of its consolidation, by a
process of shrivelling in the soft matter, and by the motions and
efforts of the polypes themselves.* Link says that the experi-
ments he has made on the Plumularia falcata and the Sertularia
cupressina have led him to adopt the opinion of Cavolini and
Schweigger, that this sheath is vascular and organized, for, un-
der a very powerful magnifier, he has seen coloured vessels ra-
mified in the stem and branches of these polypidoms. He is
also certain that their stems are often increased with age by con-
centric layers, and that the calcareous matter is deposited in
true cells.-|- These observations are intended to support the
theory of the independent growth of the polypidom from innate
living motions or a vegetative principle, but notwithstanding Link's
high authority, I would caution the student against a too hasty
reception of the facts. They are at variance with the experi-
ments of Ellis, Grant and Blainville ; nor does Dr Fleming nor
Mr Lister appear ever to have noticed traces of vascularity in
these objects during their microscopical inquiries ; and I have
in vain sought for the existence of vessels^ in some transparent
species, as Sertularia rosacea and Campanularia gelatinosa,
where it seemed likely they would most easily be detected. Dr
Fleming, from observations of a different kind, as e. g. the con-
version of cells into vesicles and of these into branches, or even of
the polypes themselves into branches, in the Plumularia bullata
and Campanularia gelatinosa, has come to the conclusion that
the polypidom is, in its mode of growth, analogous to hone^
" a circumstance on which its apparent vegetating power de~
pends"j ; but since I suspect the accuracy of the alleged ob-
servations, and cannot, on reflection, perceive where the analo-
gy between these horny sheaths and bone lies, I am necessitated

* See Lister's Observations in Phil. Trans. 1834, p. 374; and Lam. Anim.
s. Vert. ii. 119. 2de edit. Milne- Edwards also tells us that there is a canal
down the centre of the soft pulp in which the circulation is carried on. Is not
this a transcendental piece of anatomy ?

f Ann. des Sciences Nat. Part. Bot. Vol. ii. p. 321.,

X Memoirs of the Wernerian See. Vol. v. p. 303 — G.

ZOOPHYTA HYDROIDA. 85

to believe tlio polypidoni to be extravascular and inorganic — the
result of an exudation from the interior pulp, and dependent, on
this for its form and growth, however varied this may be. In the
reproductive gemmule there are two substances, viz. the pulp
and the thin cuticle or membrane, the latter of which is the germ
of the future arborescent or cellular polypidom : by the growth
of the pulp the membrane is distended and moulded into a cell,
or pushed upwards in the form of a shoot, in which, after a time,
the pidp is arrested in its growth longitudinally, swells out,
and is developed into an animated polype, furnished with ten-
tacula, a mouth, and digestive organs. Bursting the cell
at the point which becomes the future aperture, it there dis-
plays its organs, and begins the capture of its prey, for, unlike
higher organisms, the polype is at this the period of its birth as
large and as perfect as it ever is at any subsequent period, the
walls of the cell having become indurated and unyielding, and
setting a limit to any further increase in bulk. The growth
being thus hindered in that direction, the pulp, incessantly in-
creased by new supplies of nutriment from the polype, is con-
strained and forced into its original direction, so that the extre-
mities of the tube, which have remained soft and pliant, are
pushed onwards, the downward shoot becoming a root-like fibre,
and the upper continuing the polypidom, and swelling out as
before, at stated intervals, into cells for the new developement
of other polypes. The polypidom then, however like unto cer-
tain vegetables in appearance, has, as Ellis said, nothing vege-
table about it, but is entirely an animal production, and excret-
ed by the animated pulp which fills its whole interior. Ellis
and his followers are only so far wrong, that they have attributed
to the polypes themselves what is actually due to the pulp. The
latter is that from which the polypidom is exuded ; for, indeed,
the cell always precedes the existence of the polypus which is
developed within it ; while the polypidom begins to be develop-
ed from the gelatinous substance of the reproductive gemmules
before any polypes are formed, and it continues to be develop-
ed and extended by the fleshy mass of the zoophyte, whether
polypes are developed in the cells or not. " There is but one
life, and one plan of developement, in the whole mass ; and this
depends not on the polypi, which are but secondary and often

86 ZOOPHYTA HYDROIDA.

deciduous parts, but on the general fleshy substance of the

body."*

The polypes are placed in the cells within which, with the

exception of the Tubularise, they can hide themselves entirely

when danger threatens. When at rest and in their native sites,

they expand their tentacula and push them far beyond the rim

of their cups, in readiness to arrest any small worm or crusta-

ceous insect which may float within their circle.

" Utque sub sequoribus deprensum polypus hostem
" Contiiiet, ex omni dimissis parte ilagellis."

Ovid. Met. vi. 366.

These tentacula are always simple but roughish, (Fig. 9 c,) and
in the centre of the disk round which they are arranged we perceive
the oral aperture (d,) leading to a stomachical cavity without
intestine or other chylopoetick viscus. The body is somewhat
globular, soft and irritable ; and it is prolonged posteriorly down
the stalk or tube to be united with the central pulp which fills
the branches and stem, (e,) so that in this manner all the po-
lypes of the same polypidom are connected together by a living
thread, and constitute a family whose objects and interests are
identical, and whose workings are all regulated by one harmo-
nious instinct.

" Unconscious, not unworthy, instruments,

By which a hand invisible was rearing

A new creation in the secret deep."
Or if, with Linnaeus and Cuvier, we suppose that the " whole
composure makes one animal," this may be described as a sort
of hydra divided, after the manner of a tree, into many or in-
numerable branches, from each of which pullulate one or more
armed heads to capture and digest the prey that is to serve for
the nutriment of their common trunk.

The reproductive gemmules of Tubularia and Coryne are
generated in the interior and extruded near the base of the ten-
tacula ; but in all the other genera they are produced in exter-
nal vesicles, which were therefore appropriately named by Ellis
the matrices or ovaries, and which we have already mentioned
as being larger than the cells and irregular in their distribution.
They are produced at certain seasons only, most commonly in
spring, and fall off" after the maturity and discharge of their con-

* Grant's Outlines of Comp. Anatomy, p. 14.

ZOOPHYTA HYDROIDA. 87

tents. * The number of the gemmules in each vesicle, and
their shape, varies in every species. In the vesicle they are
connected to a central placentular column, though there are some
exceptions to this, and when mature they escape outwards by a
disruption or fall of the lid which closes the top, being extruded
in succession and, in some cases at least, after intervals of some
hours. It appears to be deducible from some figures of Ellis, f
rather than from his expressions, X which are equivocal, that the
ovules are sometimes developed into perfect polypi before their
expulsion from the matrix, but the fact, though not incredible,
needs confirmation, and it is certain that their birth in the ovi^
form condition is the general rule. At this period they are
clothed with cilia, as Ellis has figured them, § and as Professor
Grant first distinctly brought into view ; and by means of the
rapid vibrations of these minute organs they are carried to
and fro through the water for some time, varying from a
few hours to two or three days, until, having at length in due
course settled on a proper site, they throw out, in the man-
ner of a vegetable seed, a root-like fibre to fix themselves,
and then push up a shoot as a commencement to the fu-
ture polypidom. || Polype-cells and polypes are rapidly evolv-
ed on the sides of this shoot, and nourishment being now re-

* So that Hedwig's axiom, adopted by M. Virey, " that the reproductive
organs of animals are contijiuous with the life of the individual, while the repro-
ductive organs of perennial plants, when their functions have been performed,
are thrown off, and replaced hi the succeeding season by others,"— must be re-
ceived with some limitations — See Tiedemann's Comp. Physiology, p. 7G.

t Corall. pi. V. lig. A. t Corall. Introd. p. x.

§ Corall. pi. xxxviii. fig. B.

II Mr Lister has minutely described the ova of Campanularia gelatinosa.
" The ova were roundish, and consisted of two portions ; the outer and more
transparent, that might be called the white, inclosing an inner bag filled with
particles in fluid like those in the currents of the stem, and connected with
them by the cord. The current and agitation were seen in the inner bags only,
and the flow into and from them alternately along the cord was strongly marked."
As they approach maturity " the ova became more opaque, which hid the
changes that might be taking place within them. The number in a full ovai-y
was about seven." When mature they emerged from the cell " in succession
at an average interval of six hours. The protrusion took about a quarter of an
hour, and was connnonly preceded by a transparent projection, like torn mem-
brane, before the end of the ovary, and a few active particles in tlie water."
—Phil. Trans. 1834, n. o75.

88 ZOOPHYTA HYDROIDA.

ceived from an external source, and circulating throuoh the
whole animal, there is not merely an upward growth, but creep-
ing tubes, " full of the same living medullary substance with
the rest of the body," are projected from the base along the
surface of the object of fixture. " These tubes not only secure
it from the motion of the waves, but likewise from these rise
other young animals or corallines, which growing up like the
former, with their proper heads or organs to procure food, send
out other adhering tubes from below, with a further increase of
these many-headed branched animals ; so that in a short time
a whole grove of vesicular corallines is formed, as we find them
on oysters, and other shell-fish, when we drag for them in deep
water." *

There are many facts which prove that the growth of these
polypidoms is very rapid, but not more so than might be anti-
cipated when it is remembered how vast is the number of polype
architects ; and no sooner is a new branch extended than it be-
comes almost simultaneously a support of new workers which,
with " toil unwearyable," add incessantly to the materials of in-
crease. Their duration is various : some have only a summer's
existence, as Campanularia geniculata ; many are probably an-
nual, and the epiphyllous kinds cannot at most prolong their
term beyond that of the weed on which they grow : but such
as attach themselves to rocks are probably less perishable, for
their size and consistency seem to indicate a greater age : it is
thus with the Tubularise and some of the compound Sertu-
lariadse.

But the life of the polypes considered abstractedly is proba-
bly in no instance coetaneous with the duration of the polypi-
dom, for the lower parts of this become, after a time, empty of
pulp and lifeless, and lose the cells inhabited by the polypes,

" Ellis and Solander's Zoophytes, p. 33.

'* New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots

" On lengthening branches, and protruding roots ;

" Or on the father's side from bursting glands

" The adhering young its nascent form expands ;

" In branching lines the parent-trunk adorns,

" And parts ere long like plumage, hairs, or horns."

Darwin's Temple of Nature, Canto Li.
4

ZOOPHYTA HYDROIDA. 89

which, in an old specimen, are to be found in a state of activity
only near the summit, or on the new shoots. The Thuiaria
thuja affords a remarkable example of this fact ; the branches
which carry the polypes dropping off in regular succession as
younger ones are successively formed, so that the polypidom re-
tains, throughout its whole growth, the appearance of a bottle-
brush, the naked stem and the branched top being kept in every
stage in a due proportion to each other. Sertularia argentea,
Plumularia falcata, &c. are subjected to the same law, — the pri-
mary polypiferous shoots being deciduous, so that in them also
the stalk becomes bare, while the upper parts are graced with
a luxuriant ramification loaded with tiny architects. But in our
eagerness to generalize, let us not forget that there are some
species, as Sertularia pumila, abietina, &c., in which this pro-
cess of successive denudation is not observable, — perhaps, how-
ever, because of their form, which is not of a kind to be altered
by it, and hence unnoticeable, or because the duration of the
whole is too fugitive to permit the law to produce a visible ef-
fect.

There are facts which appear to prove that the life of the in-
dividual polypes is even more transitory than their own cells ;
that like a blossom they bud and blow and fall off or are absorb-
ed, when another sprouts up from the medullary pulp to occupy
the very cell of its predecessor, and in its turn to give way and
be replaced by another. When speaking of flexible corallines
Ijamouroux says, " Some there are that are entirely covered
with polypi through the summer and autumn, but they perish
with the cold of winter : no sooner, however, has the sun resum-
ed his revivifying influence than new animals are developed, and
fresh branches are produced upon the old ones."* Of the Tu-
bularia indivisa. Sir John G. Dalyell tells us that " the head is
deciduous, falling in general soon after recovery from the sea.
It is regenerated at intervals of from ten days to several weeks,
but with the number of external organs successively diminishing,
though the stem is always elongated. It seems to rise within
this tubular stem from below, and to be dependent on the pre-
sence of the internal tenacious matter with which the tube is oc-

* Corall. Flex- p. xvi.

90 ZOOPHYTA HYDROIUA.

cupied. A head springs from the remaining stem, cut over very
near the root ; and a redundance of heads may be obtained from
artificial sections, apparently beyond the ordinary provisions of
nature. Thus twenty-two heads were produced through the
course of 550 days, from three sections of a single stem."* The
observations of Mr Harvey on the same, or a very nearly allied,
species of zoophyte confirm the experiments of Sir J. G. Dal-
yell, so far as these have i-eference to the deciduousness of the
polypes and their regeneration ; -f- and it seems to me not alto-
gether unwarrantable to infer a like temporary existence and re-
vival in those of the Sertulariadse from a reflection on the ex-
periments of Mr Lister, — incomplete certainly, but which prove
that under certain circamstances their polypes disappear by a pro-
cess of internal absorption,;]: and under convenient circumstances
would probably have been renovated, as I have witnessed this re-
sult in similar experiments. On Saturday, May 28th 1837, a spe-
cimen of Campanularia gelatinosa was procured from the shore,
and after having ascertained that the polypes were active and entire,
it was placed in a saucer of sea-water. Here it remained undis-
turbed until Monday afternoon, when all the polypes had disap-
peared. Some cells were empty or nearly so, others were half-fil-
led with the wasted body of the polype, which had lost, however,
every vestige of the tentacula. The water had become putrid, and
the specimen was therefore removed to another vessel with pure
water, and again set aside. On examining it on the Thursday,

* Edin. New Phil. Joum. xvii. p. 415.

t " The most singular circumstance attending the growth of this animal, and
which I discovered entirely by accident, remains to be mentioned. After I had
kept the clusters in a large bowl for two days, I observed the animals to droop
and look unhealthy. On the third day the heads were all thrown off, and lying
on the bottom of the vessel ; all the pink colouring matter was deposited in the
form of a cloud, and when it had stood quietly for two days, it became a very
line powder. Thinking that the tubes were dead I was going to throw them
iiway, but I happened to be under the necessity of quitting home for two days,
and on my return 1 found a thin transparent film being protruded from the top
of every tube : I then changed the water every day, and in three days time every
tube had a small body reproduced upon it. The only difference that I can dis-
cover in the structure of the young from the old heads, consists in the new ones
wanting the small red papillce, and in the absence of all colour in the animal."
— Proceed. Zool. Soc. No. 41, p. 55.

I Phil. Trans. 1834, p. 374, 376.

3

ZOOPHYTA HYDKOIDA. 91

(June 1st) the cells were evidently filling again, although no
tentacula were visibly protruded, but on the afternoon of Friday
(June 2d) every cell had its polype complete, and displayed in
the greatest perfection. Had these singular facts been known
to Linnteus, how eagerly and effectively would he have impres-
sed them into the support of his favourite theory ! Like the
flowers of the field the heads or " flores" of these polypidoms
expand their petaloid arms, which after a time fall like blighted
blossoms off a tree ; — they do become " old in their youth,"
and rendered hebetous and unfit for duty or ornament by age or
accident, the common trunk throws them off, and supplies its
wants by ever-young and vigorous growths. The phenomena
are of those which justly challenge admiration and excuse a so-
ber scepticism, so alien are they to all we are accustomed to ob-
serve in more familiar organisms ; but besides that faithful ob-
servation renders the facts undeniable, a reflection on the history
of the Hydra might almost have led us to anticipate such events
in the life of these zoophytes. " Verily for mine owne part,
the more I looke into Nature's workes, the sooner am I induced
to beleeve of her even those things that seem incredible."

I arrange the British species of this order under the follow-
ing families and genera :

Family I. HYDRAID.F:.
Polypes gemmiparous, the young pullulating from the body of the

parent.

1. Hydra. Polypes naked, single, locomotive.

Family II. TUBULARIAD/E.
Polypes gemmiparous, the gemmules naked, pullulating from the

bases of the tentacula.
* No Poly2)idom.

2. CoRYNE. Polypes naked, the tentacula filiform.

3. Hermia. Polypes tunicated, the tentacula with glandular tips.

** A distinct polypidom.

4. TuBULARiA. Polypes not retractile within cells : Polypidoms
listular, simple or branched.

92 ZOOPHYTA HYDKOIDA.

Family HI- SERTULARIADiE.

Polypes gemmiparous, the gemmules enclosed in external ovarian
persistent vesicles scattered on the polypidom.
* Polype-cells sessile.
5. Thoa. Cells indistinct, tubular or campanulate, alternate.
G. Sertularia. Cells biserial, vasiform, short, erect, the aper-
tures everted.

7. Thuiaria. Cells biserial, tubular-conical, imbedded, the aper-
tures looking- forward.

8. Plumularia, Cells uniserial ; the branchlets plumose or pec-
tinate.

9. Antennularia. Cells uniserial ; the branchlets whorled.

** Polype-cells on ringed stalks.

10. Laomedea. Cells from a thickened joint of the stem, alter-
nate, campanulate.

11. Campanularia. Cells continuous with the stem, irregular

or whorled, campanulate.

Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

I. ZOOPHYTA HYDROIDA.

FAMILY I. HYDRAIDiE.

1. Hydra,* Linnaeus.

Character. — Polypes locomotive, single, naked, gelatinous,
sub-cylindrical, hut very contractile and mutable inform, the mouth
encircled with a single series of granulous filiform tentacula.

1. H. viRiDis, grass-green ; body cylindrical or insensibly

narroived downwards ; tentacula 6 — 10, shorter than the body.

Woodcut, No. 4, page 37.

Polyi)es verds, Trembley, Mem. 22, pi. 1, fig. 1 ; pi. 3, fig. 1 — 10

Fresh-water Polypus, Trembley, in Phil. Trans. Abridg. viii. 623. Folhes,

in ibid. 676. pi. 17, and pi. 18, fig. 1 — 3 Hydra viridis. Lin.

Faun. Suee. 367, No. 1283. Lin. Syst. 1320. Mull. Verm. I. ii. 13.
Zool. Dan. prod. 230, No. 2783. Berk. Syn. i. 221. Ure's Rutberg. 232.
Turt. Gmel. iv. 691. Turt. Br. Faun. 218. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 60.
Steio. Elem. ii. 452. pi. 12, fig. 4, 5. Blumenhach's Man. 275. pi. 1 .
fig. 10. Base, Vers ii. 274. Stark, Elem. ii. 443. Woodward in Mag.
Nat. Hist. iii. 349, fig. 89. Roget, Bridgew. Treat, i. 162, fig. 59, and
176—8, fig. 73—76. Adams on the Microscope, 399, pi. 21, fig. 5.

* "TtTga — properly " a water serpent," but the name has been appropriated to
the monster of Lake Lerna, fabled to have 50 or 100 heads, of which no sooner
was one of them cut off, than two sprouted out in its place. From this property
Linnaeus was obviously led to apply the name to the animalcules in question.

94 Z. HYDROIDA. Hydra.

Carus, Comp. Aiiat. tab. 1. fig. 1 H. viridissima, Pall. Eleiich. 31.

Third sort of Polype, Baker, Polyp. 19 c. fig Le Polype vert,

Cuv. Reg. Aiiim. iii. 293. L'Hydre verte, Blainv. Actinol. 494. pi.

85, fig. 1.
Hab. Ponds and still waters, common throughout England, and
the south of Scotland. In almost all the parishes in the vicinity of
Glasgow, Ure.

The polypes of this species differ from the following, " not only
in colour, but likewise in their arms, which were much shorter in pro-
portion to their bodies, capable of but little extension, and narrower
at the root than the extremity, which is contrary to the other spe-
cies. Their arms were so short, they could not clasp round a very
small and slender worm, but seemed only to pinch it fast, till they
could master and devour it, which they did with as much greediness
as any. I imagined these polypes owed their green colour to some
particular food, such as weeds, &c. and that they would lose it upon
being kept to worms ; but I find myself mistaken, for they retain
their greenness after some months as well as ever, and are now grown
of a moderate size, extending sometimes three quartei'S of an inch ;
their arms are also lengthened very much to what they were, and
are of a lighter green than the body, their number eight, nine, or ten.
The tail is very little slenderer than the body, but more spread at
the end than the tails of other kinds." — Baker.

Pallas says that the offspring are produced from every part of the
body, while Blainville thinks he has remarked that they shoot always
from the same place, " au point de jonction de la partie creuse et de
celle qui ne Test pas." Blainville is candid enough, however, to in-
form us that Professor Van der Hoven had made some observations
adverse to his opinion ;* and our own are certainly in accordance
with those of Pallas and of the Professor of Leyden.

Trembley is careful to tell us that he discovered this species in
June 1740, nor can we smile at the particularity of the record when
we remember that the discovery is the foundation of his immortal
fame.f It was first observed in England in the spring of 1743 by a Mr
Du Gane of Essex. It appears to be a hardy animal. I have kept it for
more than twelvemonths in a small vial of water unchanged during
the whole of that time, and it remained lively, and bred freely, feed-
ing on the minute Entomostraca confined with it, and which propa-

• Bulletin des Sc. Nat. xvi. 337.

f " Trembley (Abraham), de Geneve, ne en 1710, mort en 1784; immortel
par le decouverte de la reproduction du polype." — Cuvier, Reg. Animal, iii. 422.
— Blumenbach also informs us that his observations on this polype first led him
to his ingenious investigations on the Nisus formativus.

Hydra. Z. HYDROIDA. 95

gating- much more abundantly, furnished a good supply of what was
evidently a favourite food.

2. H. VULGARIS, orange-broicn or sometimes oil-green ; body
cylindrical ; tentacula 7-12, as long or longer than the body,

Plate I.

Polypes de la seconde espece, Tremb. Mem. pi. 1, fig. 2, 5 ; pi. 2. fig. 2 ;
pi. 6. fig. 2 and 8; pi. 8. fig. 1—7; pL iO. fig. 1—7 ; pi. 11, 12, 13.

figs. omn. partly copied in Adams, Micros, 399, pi. 21. fig. 6 Hydra

vulgaris, Pall. Elench. 30. Ellis in Phil. Trans. Ivii. 430. Ellis and

Soland. Zooph. 9 H. grisea, Lin. Syst. 1320. Mull. Zool. Dan.

Prod. 2.30, No. 2784. Verm. i. ii. 14. Ure's Rutherg. 233. Berk.
Syn. i. 222. Turt. Gmel. iv. 692. Turt. Brit. Faun. 218. Blumenb.
Man. 295. Stew. Elem. ii. 452. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 60. Bosc,
Vers ii. 275. Stark, Elem. ii. 443. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix.

418 — H. brunnea, Templeton, loc. cit. 417. fig. 56 First sort of

Polype, Baker, Polyp. 17. c. fig L'Hydre commune, Blainv. Acti-

nol. 495.
Hab. Weedy ponds and slowly running waters Probably common
in all parts of the kingdom.

On comparing the descriptions of the authors quoted above, I am
led to conclude that this species is either subject to much variety, or
that two species have been confounded together, and given rise to a
discrepancy which seems otherwise irreconcileable. My own expe-
rience inclines me to the latter supposition, but since I have had no
opportunities of making observations on specimens from different and
distant localities, I deem it more prudent to indicate what appear to
be two species as only varieties of the vulgaris, until the point can
be settled by more leisured naturalists.

Var. a. aurantia, light reddish-brown or orange-coloured ; tenta-
cula not longer than the body. Fig. 2.

Var. b. grisea, light olive-green ; tentacula paler and longer than
the body. Fig. 1.

The first is by much the commoner, and does not exceed the H.
yiridis in size, which it resembles also in its habits and form. It is
always of an orange, brown, or red colour, the intensity ofWie tint
depending on the nature of the food, on the state of the creature's
repletion, becoming even blood-red when fed upon the small crim-
son worms and larvse which usually abound in its haunts.* The ten-

* " I have found a bright red Hydra rather abundant on Putney Heath, near
London. It does not much differ, except in colour, from the green one." J.
E.Gray in lit. May 6, 1833 — See Trembley's Mem. p. 47, and 128.

96 Z. HYDROIDA. Hydka.

taenia in all my specimens have never exceeded the length of the
body, are usually seven or eight in number, and taper to the point
insensibly. Every part of the body is generative of young, which
may frequently be seen hanging from the parent at the same time in
different stages of their growth. Baker's figui'e represents this va-
riety very well.

The second is a larger animal and comparatively rare, less sensible
to external impressions, and of a more gracile form. Its colour is a
dilute olive-green with paler tentacula, which are considerably long-
er than the body, and hang like silken threads in the water, waving
to and fro without assuming that regular circular disposition which
they commonly do in the H. viridis. I have not observed more
than one young at a time, pullulating from near the middle of the
body, and after this has attained a certain growth, the polype has the
appearance of being dichotomously divided.

Dr Fleming's Hydra vulgaris, Brit. Anim. 553, embraces this
and the preceding, as well as the following species, which are consi-
dered the mere variations of one protean original ; —

" Facies non omnibus una,
Nee di versa tamen :" —

but the conviction of their permanent distinctness has been forced
upon me by a long continuous observation of individuals in a state of
confinement. Had, however, personal observation been wanting, the
same conclusion would have been willingly adopted on the paramount
authorities of Trembley and Baker, who had very carefully studied
these creatures ; and Pallas speaks very decidedly to the same pur-
port. " Species Hydrae a Linnaeo* pro varietatibus habitas, a Raese-
lio primum bene determinatas adoptavi, cum de trium priorum con-
stantia, propi'ia me experientia certissimum reddiderit." — Elench. 29.

3. H. FUSCA, hrown or griseous ; inferior half of the body sud-
denly attenuated ; tentacida several times longer titan the body.
Vignette, No. 11, page 93.
Polypes a long bras, Tremh. Mem. pi. 1. fig. 3, 4, 6 ; pi. 2. fig. 1, 3, 4 ; pi.
3, fig. 11 ; pi. 5, fig. 1-4; pi. 6, fig. 3-7, 9, 10 ; pi. 8. fig. 8, 11 ; pi. 9.
copied in Adams, Micros. 399, pi. 21, fig. 7, 8 ; pi. 2-3, A. B ; pi. 24, A,

B. fig. omnes. Cuv. Reg. Anim. ill. 295 Long armed fresh-water

Polype, Ellis, Corall. xvi. pi. 28. fig. C. (the tentacula shortened for the

conveniency of introducing them within the size of the plate.) Second

sort of Polype, Baker, Polyp. 18. c. fig Hydra oligactis, Pall. Elench.

29 H. fusca, Lin. Syst. 1320. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 9. Berk.

In the lOtli edit, of Syst. Nat. p. 810, under the name oi Hydra Polypus,

Hydra. Z. IIYDHOIDA. 97

Syn. i, •2-21. Turt. Gmel. iv. 991. Blumcnb. Man. 275. Turt. Brit.
Faun. 218. Stew. Elem. ii. 452. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 60. Bosc,

Vers, ii. 275. L'H. brune, Blainv. Actinol. 495.

Hab. Still waters in England, rare. In a pond at Hackney, Mr
John Ellicot.*

" The tails of these are long-, slender, and transparent, and when
placed before the microscope, a long- straight gut may plainly be dis-
tinguished passing from the body-part or stomach to an opening at
the end thereof. These are rather lighter coloured than the former,
(H. vulgaris,) and have seldom more than six or eight arms, but
those capable of great extension." — Baker.

Baker reckoned that his English exemplars were of a soi*t diffe-
rent from those he had received from M. Trembley, but the only ap-
parent difference lies in the greater shortness of the tentacula of the
former, and this is a character liable to considerable variation, and in-
sufficient of itself for specific distinction. The species has been
beautifully illustrated in Trembley's " Memoires," by the pencil and
graver of the celebrated Lyonet, for it is an interesting fact that all
the figures, and most of the plates, which adorn the admirable book
just mentioned, were drawn and etched by the author of the " Traite
anatomique de la chenille du saule,"f and are indeed among the very
earliest specimens of his extraordinary attainments in these arts.

It may be worth while to call attention to the remarkable resem-
blance of the Hydra fusca to the Cucullanus cirratus of MuUer,
Zool. Dan. tab. 38, fig. 1-7, which is an intestinal worm !

4. H. VERRUCOSA, pale cinereous ; body pedunculate, cam-
paniform ; tentacula longer than the hody.

Hydra verrucosa, Templeton, in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 418, fig. 57.

Hab. Still waters, " In the pond at Cranmore (near Belfast,)
Sept. 1812," J. Templeton, Esq.

" Of a pale cinereous hue, with six verrucated tentacula, of mode-
rate length, and nearly equal thickness." " This species, when at

rest, assumes more of a campanulate form than any other species of
the genus, except lutea and the following. The warts are not uni-
formly diffused, as in pallens ; nor do the tentacula diminish much in
size towards the tips." — Templeton.

* Elected F. R. S. Oct. 26, 1738; and the author of several papers on sub-
jects in Natural Philosophy, published in the Phil. Trans, between the years
1745 and 1750. He was a watchmaker, and died in 1772.

t " Ouvrage qui est a la fois le chef-d'oeuvre de 1 'anatomic et celui de la gra-
vure." — Cuvier.

G

98 Z. HYDROIDA. Hydiia,

** Marine species.
5. H. ? LiTTORALis, " white; head large ; about 10 extreme-
ly short tentacula encircling the base." — Robert Jameson. *

Hydra lutea? Jameson, in Wem. Mem. i. 565— H. lutea, Flem. Brit.

Anim. 554 — H. corynaria, Templeton, in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 419, fig. 58.

Hah. Sea shore, adhering- to Fuci. Frith of Forth, Professor

.Jameson. " Found adhering- to Fucus vesiculosus, at White House

Point, Belfast Lough, Oct. 1810," J. Templeton, Esq.

The figure represents a branched animal with enlarged clavate
heads encircled round the truncate apex, with tentacula rather short-
er than the diameter. — To justify the change I have made in the
name, it is only necessary to mention that nothing can be more cer-
tain than that this species is not identical either with the Hydra lu-
tea or corynaria of Bosc.

Observations.

Leeuwenhoek-|- discovered the Hydra in 1703, and the uncomrnon
way its young are produced, and an anonymous correspondent of the
Royal Society made the same discovery in England about the same
time, but it excited no particular notice until Trembley made known
its wonderful properties, about the year 1744. These were so con-
trary to all former experience, and so repugnant to every established
notion of animal life, that the scientific world were amazed ; and while
the more cautious among natiu'alists set themselves to verify what it
was difficult to believe, there were many who looked upon the al-
leged facts as impossible fancies. The discoveries of Trembley were,
however, speedily confirmed ; and we are now so familiar with the
outlines of the history of the fresh- water polype, and its marvellous
reproductive powers, that we can scarcely appreciate the vividness of
the sensation felt when it was all novel and strange ; when the lead-
ing men of our learned societies were daily experimenting on these
poor worms, and transmitting them to one another from distant coun-
ti'ies, by careful posts, and as most precious gifts ; and when even
ambassadors interested themselves in sending early intelligence of the
engrossing theme to their respective courts.

' The name affixed to tlie specific character is that of the person who, so
far as I have been able to ascertain the point, added the species to the British
Fauna. — Mr Jameson is the present Regius Professor of Natural History in the
University of Edinburgh.

+ " Antonius v. Leeuwenhoek, civis Delphensis, peritus vitrorum politor,
curiosus, et ad paradoxas opiniones pronus." Haller, Bib. Bot. i. 583. He
was born 1632 ; elected F. R. S. .January 1680 ; and died in 1723.

4

Hydra. Z. HYDROIDA. 99

The Hydrae are found in fresh and, perhaps, also in salt waters, but
the former species only have been examined with care, and are the
objects of the following remarks. They prefer slowly running- or al-
most still water, and fasten to the leaves and stalks of submerged
plants by their base, which seems to act as a sucker. The body is
exceedingly contractile, and hence liable to many changes of form :
when contracted it is like a tubercle, a minute top or button, and
when extended it becomes a narrow cylinder, being ten or twelve times
longer at one time than at another, the tentacula suifering changes in
their length and diameter equal to those of the body. " It can lengthen
out or shorten its arms, without extending or contracting its body ;
and can do the same by the body, without altering the length of its
arms : both, however, are usually moved together, at the same time
and in the same direction." — The whole creature is apparently homo-
geneous, composed of minute pellucid grains cohering by means of a
transparent jelly, for even with a high magnifier no defined organiza-
tion of vessels and fibres can be detected. On the point opposite the
base, and in the centre of the tentacula, we observe an aperture or
mouth which leads into a wider cavity excavated as it were in the
midst of the jelly,* and from which a narrow canal is continued down
to the sucker. When contracted, and also when fully extended, the
body appears smooth and even, but " in its middle degree of exten-
sion," the sides seem to be minutely crenulated, an efi'ect probably of
a wrinkling of the surface, although from this appearance Baker has
concluded that the Hydra is annulose, or made up of a numl)er of
rings capable of being folded together or evolved, and hence, in some
measure, its extraordinary ability of extending and contracting its
parts.-j- That this view of the Hydra's structure is erroneous, Trem-
bley has proved ;J and the explanation it afforded of the animal's con-
tractility was obviously unsatisfactory, for it was never pretended that

Pallas denies this. " Ab alimento recepto cavata, inquam, baud enim Hy-
dra corpus naturaliter intestini instar cavum crediderim. Totum solidum et
medullare, pro admoto alimento, cerae instar, digitum admittentis, cavari concipio
parenchyma et alimentis insinuatis sese circumfundere. Qui alias per longi-
tiidinem dissecta Hydra, illico qualibet portione deglutire, et cavo clauso alimen-
ta condere posset ? quod tamen observai'e rarum non est." Elench. Zooph. 27,
28. — For a view of the Hydra's stomach see Tremb. Mem. pi. 4, fig. 7, copied
by Roget in his Bridgew. Treat, ii. 74, fig. 241.

-|- " The outward coat is white like the arms, and made up of minute annuli
or ringlets, that double in the midst, and can, occasionally, be folded close to-
gether, in the manner of a paper lanthorn." — Hist, of the Polype, 25.

\ Mem. 27.

100 Z. HYDKOIDA Hydra.

such an anatomy could be detected in the tentacula, which, however,
are equally or more contractile. These organs encircle the mouth
and radiate in a star-like fashion, but they seem to originate a little
under the lip, for the mouth is often protruded Hke a kind of small
snout : they are cylindrical, linear or very slightly tapered, hollow
and roughened, at short and regular intervals, with whorls of tuber-
cles which, under the microscope, foi'ra a very beautiful and interest-
ing object ; and I have thought, when viewing them, that every lit-
tle tubercle might be a cup or sucker similar to those which garnish
the arms of the cuttle-iish.* Trerabley has shewn us that this is a
deception, and that there is really no exactness in the comparison. t
The tentacula are amazingly extensible, from a line or less to one or,
as in H. fusca, to more than eight inches ; and " another extraordi-
nary circumstance is, that a polype can extend an arm in any part of
its whole length, without doing so throughout, and can swell or les-
sen its diameter, either at the root, at the extremity, in the middle,
or where it pleases : which occasions a great variety of appearances,
making it sometimes terminate with a sharp point, and at other
times blnnt, knobbed, and thickest at the end, in the figure of a bob-
bin." We naturally enquire how this wonderful extension is made, —
by what power a part without muscularity is drawn out until it ex-
ceeds by twenty or even by forty times the original length ? The
dissections of Trembley have proved beyond any doubt that the body
is a hollow cyhnder or bowel, and that the tentacula are tubular and
have a free communication with its cavity ;J and in this structure,
combined with the loose granular composition of the animal, we find
an answer to the question. Water flows, let us say by suction, into
the stomach through the oral aperture, whence it is forced by the
vis a tergo, or drawn by capillary attraction, into the canals of the
tentacula, and its current outvvards is sufficient to push before it the
soft yielding material of which they are composed, until at last the
resistance of the living parts suffices to arrest the tiny flood, or the

* Pallas has the same suggestion Elench. 26. See also Roget's Bridgew.
Treat, i. 182. — Baker says that " two or three pretty long hairs" issue from each
of the papilke or tubercles, p. 36 ; and Trembley has figured a short hair issu-
ing from some of them, Mem. 62, pi. 5, fig. 3. This appearance of hairs is, I
presume, produced by the glutinous secretion from them being drawn out into
fine lines and drying on the glass. The tentacula probably adhere to foreign
bodies principally by means of a mucous excretion, and being as it were en-
grained into the microscopic interstices of the body to which they are applied —
Tremb. Mem. 46.

t Mem. 108.

t Ibid. 123—5; and 26-3.

Hybra. Z. HYDROIDA. 101

tube has become too fine in its bore for the admission of water attenu-
ated to its smallest possible stream, — how inconceivably slender may
indeed be imagined, but there is no thread fine enough to equal it,
seeing- that the tentacula of Hydra fusca in tension can be compared
to nothing- gi-osser than the scarce visible filament of the gossamer's
web.

The Hydra, thoug-h usually found attached, can nevertheless move
from place to place, which it does either by gliding- with impercep-
tible slowness on the base, or by stretching- out the body and tenta-
cula to the utmost, fixing- the latter, and then contracting- the body
towards the point of fixture, loosening at the same time its hold with
the base ; and by reversing these actions it can retrograde. Its or-
dinary position seems to be pendant or nearly horizontal, hanging
from some floating weed or leaf, or stretching from its sides. lu a
glass of water the creature will crawl up the sides of the vessel to
the surface, and hang from it, sometimes with the base, and some-
times with the tentacula downwards ; and again it will lay itself along
horizontally.* Its locomotion is always very slow, and the disposi-
tion of the zoophyte is evidently sedentary ; but the contractions and
mutations of the body itself are sufficiently vivacious, while in seiz-
ing and mastering its prey it is surprisingly nimble ; seizing a worm,
to use the comparison of Baker, " with as much eagerness as a cat
catches a mouse." It is dull and does not expand freely in the dark,
but enjoys light, and hence undoubtedly the reason why we generally
find the Hydra near the surface and in shallow water.

The Hydrae are very voracious, feeding only on living- animals, f but

* " The position in which they appear to take most delight, is that of re-
maining suspended from the surface of the v/ater by means of the foot alone :
and this they effect in the following manner. When the flat surface of the foot
is exposed for a short time to the air, above the surface of the water, it becomes
dry, and in this state exerts a repulsive action on the liquid, so that when drag
ged below the level of the surface, by the weight of the body, it still remains
uncovered, and occupies the bottom of a cup-shaped hollow in the fluid, thereby
receiving a degree of buoyancy, sufficient to suspend it at the surface. The
principle is the same as that by which a dry needle is supported on water, in the
boat-like hollow which is formed by the cohesive force of the liquid, if care be
taken to lay the needle down very gently on the surface. If, while the Hydra is
floating in this manner, suspended by the extremity of the foot, a drop of water
be made to fall upon that part, so as to wet it, this hydrostatic power will be
destroyed, and the animal will immediately sink to the bottom." — Roget. Bridgw.
Tr. i. 179. This passage is nearly a literal translation fron Trembley's Hist,
des Polypes, p. 37-8.

f In confinement however, Trembley found that they might be fed on min-
ced fish, beef, mutton, or veal — Mem. 104.

102 Z. HYDROIDA. Hydra.

when necessary they can sustain a fast of many weeks without other
loss than what a paler colour may indicate. Small larvae, worms,
and entomostracous insects seem to be the favourite food, and to en-
trap these they expand the tentacula to the utmost and spread them
in every direction, moving them gently in the water to increase their
chances, and when a worm, &c. touches any pait of them it is im-
mediately seized, cari'ied to the mouth by these flexible and contrac-
tile organs, and forced into the stomach. " 'Tis a fine entertainment,''
says Baker, " to behold the dexterity of a polype in the mastering
its prey, and observe with what art it evades and overcomes the su-
perior strength or agility thereof. Many times by way of experi-
ment, I have put a large worm to the very extremity of a single arm,
which has instantly fastened on it with its little invisible claspers.
Then it has afforded me inexpressible pleasure to see the polype
poising and balancing the worm with no less seeming caution and
judgment than a skilful angler shows when he perceives a heavy
fish at the end of a single hair-line, and fears it should break away.
Contracting the arm that holds it, by very slow degrees, he brings
it within the reach of his other arms, which eagerly clasping round
it, and the danger of losing it being over, all the former caution and
gentleness is laid aside, and it is pulled to the polype's mouth with a
surprising violence."* Sometimes it happens that two polypes wiU
seize upon the same worm, when a struggle for the prey ensues, in
which the strongest gains of course the victory ; or each polype begins
quietly to swallow his portion, and continues to gulp down his half
until the mouths of the pair near and come at length into actual con-
tact. The rest which now ensues appears to prove that they are
sensible of their untoward position, from which they are frequently
liberated by the opportune break of the worm, when each obtains his
share, but should the prey prove too tough, woe ! to the unready !
The more resolute dilates the mouth to the requisite extent; and de-
liberately swallows his opponent, sometimes partially, so as, however,
to compel the discharge of the bait, while at other times the entire
polype is engulped ! But a polype is no fitting food to a polype, and
his capacity of endurance saves him from this living tomb, for after a
time, when the worm is sucked out of him, the sufferer is disgorged
with no other loss than his dinner.f This fact is the more remark-
able when it is contrasted with the fate which awaits the worms on
which they feed. No sooner are these laid hold upon than they evince
every symptom of painful suffering, but their violent contortions ore

* Hist, of the Polype, G5. Also Roget's Biidgw. Treat ii. 76
t Trembley, Mem. 112.

Hydka. Z. HYDROIDA. 103

momentary and a certain death suddenly folloivs their capture. How
this effect is produced is mere matter of conjecture. Worms, in or-
dinary circumstances, are most tenacious of life even \inder severe
wounds, and hence one is inclined to suppose that there must l)e
something- eminently poisonous in the Hydra's grasp, as it is impos-
sible to believe, with Baker, that this soft toothless creature can bite
and inject a venom into the wound it gives. " I have sometimes,"
says Baker, " forced a worm from a polype the instant it has been
bitten, (at the expence of breaking off the polype's arms,) and have
always observed it to die very soon afterwards, without one single
instance of recovery."* To the Entomostraca, however, its touch is
not equally fatal, for I have repeatedly seen Cyprides and Daphnise
entangled in the tentacula and arrested for some considerable time,
escape even from the very lips of the mouth, and swim about after-
wards unharmed ; perhaps their shell may protect them from the
poisonous excretion — The grosser parts of the food, after some hours'
digestion, are again ejected by the mouth ; but, as already mention-
ed, the stomach is furnished with what, in one sense, may be called
an intestine to which, according to Trembley and Baker, there is an
outlet in the centre of the base, and the latter asserts that he has,
" several times, seen the dung of the polype in little round pellets
discharged at this outlet or anus."f

* Hist, of the Polype, 33 — comp. with 67-8 " That insigiiilicant and inac-
tive insect called the fresh water polypus, of all poisonous animals, seems to
possess the most powerful and active venom. Small water-worms, which the
polypus is only able to attack, are so tenacious of life, that they may be cut to
pieces without their seeming to receive any material injury, or to suffer much
pain from the incisions. But the poison of the polypus instantly extinguishes
every principle of life and motion. What is singular, the mouth or lips of the
polypus have no sooner touched this worm than it expires. No wound, how-
ever, is to be perceived in the dead animal. By experiments made \\\t\\ the
best microscopes, it has been found, that the polypus is neither provided with
teeth, nor any other instrument that could pierce the skin." Smellie's Phil, of
Nat. History, ii. 462 — The fact that fishes cannot be made to swallow Hydraj,
seems to prove the presence of some irritating quality in the latter See Trem-
bley, Mem. 137.

f Lib. s. cit. 27. — He adds, — " Much the greater and grosser part of what
the polype eats, is most certaiidy thrown out again by the mouth, after lying a
proper time to become digested in the stomach -. and, for a good while, I ima-
gined there was no other evacuation ; but am now convinced, that the finer part,
in small quantity, is carried downwards through the tail, and passed off that way.
I believe however there is also another purpose to which this passage serves,
and that is, to convey a mucus or slimy matter to the end of the tail, for its
more ready adhesion to sticks, stalks, or other bodies."

104 Z. HYDROIDA. Hydra.

But the Hydra is principally celebrated on account of its manner
of propagation. It is of course like zoophytes in general, asexual;
and every individual possesses the faculty of continuing and multiply-
ing its race, principally, however, by the process of subdivision.
During the summer season, a small tubercle rises on the surface,
which lengthening and enlarging every hour, in a day or two de-
velopes in irregular succession, or in successive pairs,* a series of
tentacula, and becomes in all respects, excepting size, similar to its
parent. It remains attached for some time, and grows and feeds, and
contracts and expands after the fashion of this parent, until it is at
length thrown off by a sort of sloughing or exfoliation. These buds
sprout, in the common species, from every part of the surface of the
body, but not from the tentacula; and very often two, three or four
young may be seen depending at one time from the sides of the fruit-
ful mother, in different stages of gi'owth, every one playing its part
independent of the others :

" where some are in the bud,

" some green, and rip'ning some, while others fall."

They are evolved with rapidity in warm weather especially, one
no sooner dropping off than another begins to germinate ; " and
what is most extraordinary, the young ones themselves often breed
others, and those others sometimes push out a third or fourth genera-
tion before the first fall off from the original parent." — Trembley
found in one experiment that an individual of H. grisea produced
forty-five young in two months ; the average number per month in
summer was twenty, but as each of these began to produce four or
five days after its separation, the whole produce of a month was pro-
digious, f

" No sooner is a young one furnished with arms, than it seizes and
devours worms with all possible eagerness ; nor is it an unusual thing
to behold the young one and the old one struggling for, and gorging
different ends of the same worm together. Before the arms come out,
and even sometime afterwards, a communication continues between
the bodies of the old and young, as appears beyond dispute by the
swelling of either when the other is fed. J But a little before the
young one separates, when its tail-end begins to look white, trans-
parent, and slender, the passage between them, I believe, is closed.
And when the young one comes away, there remains not the least

Baker's Hist. 35.
f Mem. pour I'Hist- des Polypes, 174 — 5. Also Baker, lib. s. cit. 53 — 4.
^ By some clever dissections, Trembley demonstrated the reality of this com-
munication. Mem. 161-2.

Hydra. Z. HYDKOIDA. 105

mark where it had been protruded." — " After a young polype once
gets all its arms, it alters indeed in size, but neither appears to shift
its skin, or undergo any of the changes most other insects do." *

Instead of buds or little protuberances, the body sometimes push-
es forth single tentacula scattered irregularly over it, and these ten-
tacula can be metamorphosed into perfect polypes, the base swelling
out to become the body, which, again soon shoots out additional ten-
tacula to the requisite number ! f

This is a mode of generation which the term viviparous does not
correctly embrace, unless we give to that word a signification so ex-
tensive as to include all generations which are not oviparous : It is
an example of equivocal, or what some foreign physiologists deno-
minate, the generation by the individualisation of a tissue previously
or already organised, jj — and seems to be the usual way of propaga-
tion among the Hydrae during the summer months. But in autumn
the Hydra generates internal oviform gemmules which, extruded from
the body, lie during the winter in a quiescent state, and are stimulat-
ed to evolution not until the return of spring and its genial weather.
Few observations have been made on these apparent ova, so that their
structure, their source, their manner of escape from the body, and
their condition during winter are scarcely known. Trembley de-
sci'ibes them as little spherical excrescences, of a white or yellow co-
lour, attached to the body by a very short pedicle. He never saw
more than three on the same polype. After some time they became
separate, and fell to the bottom of the glass of water in which the
creatures were kept, where they came to nothing, excepting one only
which was presumed to have evolved into a polype, for although
his experiment renders this conclusion probable, it was still x'ather an
inference than an actual observation, so much so, that Trembley con-
tinued to entertain doubts of their nature. Jussieu, it seems, con-
ceived that each little excrescence was a vesicle filled with ova of

" Baker, lib. s. cit. 50. t Baker ut cit. 110—11 ■. 121—3.

\ La generation n'est pas pour cela spontanee ; una generation spontanee doit
etre la production d'un etre organise de toutes pieces, lorsque des elemens in-
organiques se reuniront pour produire un animal, une plante. Cette generation
est impossible, et n'a jamais lieu. Une generation equiuoque est celle ou des tis-
sus organises prealablement par un etre deja pourvu de vie, sHndividualisent,
c'est-a-dire se separent de la masse commune et participent encore, apres cette
separation, de I'etat dynamique de la masse, c'est-a-dire de sa vie, mais, a son
propre profit. C'est ainsi qu'un tissu produit un Entozoaire. C'est de la vie
continuee." — Ch. Morren in Ann. des Sc. Nat. an. 1836, Vol. vi. j). 90. Part.
Zool.

106 Z. HYDROIDA. Hvlua.

microscopic minuteness, but there is no foutulation for any such hy-
pothesis. *

These are the modes in which the Hydra naturally multiplies its
kind, but it can be increased, as already hinted, by artificial sections
of the body, in the same manner that a perennial plant can be by
slips and shoots. If the body is halved in any direction, each half
in a short time grows up a perfect Hydra ; if it is cut into four or
eight, or even minced into forty pieces, f each continues alive, and de-
velopes a new animal, which is itself capable of being multiplied in
the same extraordinary manner. If the section is made lengthways,
so as to divide the body into two or more slips "connected merely by
the tail, they are speedily resoldered, like some heroes of fairy tale,
into one perfect whole ; or if the pieces are kept asunder, each will
become a polype, and thus we may have two or several polypes with
only one tail between them ; but if the sections be made in the contrary
direction — from the tail towards the tentacula — you produce a mon-
ster with two or more bodies and one head. If the tentacula, — the
organs by which they take their prey, and on which their existence
might seem to depend, — are cut away, they are reproduced, and the
lopt off parts remain not long without a new body : if only two or
three tentacula are embraced in the section, the result is the same ;
and a single tentaculum will serve for the evolution of a complete
creature. :{: When a piece is cut out of the body the wound speedily
heals, and, as if excited by the stimulus of the knife, young polypes
sprout from the wound more abundantly, and in preference to un-
scarred parts ; when a polype is introduced by the tail into another's
body, the two unite and form one individual ; and when a head is lopt

* Trenibley, Mem. 196—7.

f " J'ai ouvert sur ma main iin Polype, je I'ai etendu, et j'ai coupe en tout
sens la peau simple qu'il formoit, je I'ai reduit en petits morceaux, je Tai en
quelque maniere hache. Ces petits morceaux de peau, tant ceux qui avoient
desbras, que ceux qui n'en avoient point, sout devenus des Polypes parfaits." —
Tiembley, Mem. 248. Rome de Lisle attempted to lessen the remarkableness
and singularity of this fact by supposing that the Hydra was a colony of minute
aninialcides held together in a moveable polypidoni, represented by the thin outer
cuticle, and of course that this cutting and division only set free a number of in-
dependent entire beings. The hypothesis is a bold one, but has nothing in the
way of observation to support it. See Blainv, Actinol. p. 56.3.

I From the experiments of Trembley, (Mem. 235,) of a correspondent of
Baker's and of Baker himself, it would seem that a tentaculum cannot produce
a new body unless a part of the head or body is removed with it (Hist. 19.3-4,) ;
but other experimentalists are said to have succeeded when this was not done.
I'or the particulars stated in the text, and others equally incredible, the reader
may consult the works of Trembley and Baker, passim.

Hydra. Z. HYDROIDA. 107

off it may safely be ingrafted on the body of any other which may

chance to want one. You may slit the animal up, and lay it out flat

like a membrane, with impunity ; nay it may be turned inside out,

so that the stomachal surface shall become the epidermous, and yet

continue to live and enjoy itself. * And the creature even suffers

very little by these apparently cruel operations,

— " scarce seems to feel, or know
His wound, — "

for before the lapse of many minutes, the upper half of a cross sec-
tion will expand its tentacula and catch prey as usual ; and the two
portions of a long-itudinal division will, after an hour or two, take
food and retain it. " A polype cut transversely, in three parts, re-
quires four or five days in summer, and longer in cold weather, for
the middle piece to produce a head and tail, and the tail part to get a
body and head, which they both do in pretty much the same time.
The head part always appears a perfect polype sooner than the rest."
" And what is still more extraordinary, polypes produced in this man-
ner grow much lai'ger, and are far more prolific, in the way of their
natural increase, than those that were never cut. It is very common
when a polype is divided transversely, to see a young- one push out
from one or other of the parts, and sometimes from both of them, in
a very few hours after the operation has been performed : and par-
ticularly from the tail part, two or three are frequently protruded in
different places, and at different times, long before that part acquires
a new head, and consequently whilst it can take in no fresh nourish-
ment to supply them with : and yet the young ones proceeding from
it, under these disadvantages, thrive as fast, and seem as vigorous as
those produced by perfect and uncut polypes." t

When such things were first announced — when to a little worm the
attributes of angelic beings were assigned J — it is not wonderful that

* Trembley had several by him " that have remained turned in this manner ;
their inside is become their outside, and theif outside their inside : they eat,
they grow, and they multiply, as if they had never been turned." — i'hil. Trans.
Abridg. \-iii. 627 ; and his Mem. 253, &c.
f Baker, lib. s. cit. 92, 93.

X " Vital in every part, not as frail Man
In entrails, heart or head, liver or veins,
Cannot but by annihilating die ;
Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound
Receive, no more than can tlie fluid air,
All heart they live, all head, all eye, all ear,
— — — — and, as they please,
They limb themselves, and colour shajie or size
Assume, as likes them best." Millon.

108 Z. HYDROIDA. Hydra.

the vulg-ar disbelieved, albeit credulity may be their besetting sin,
when even naturalists, familiar with all the miracles of the insect
world, were amazed and wist not what to do. " II faut" — exclaimed
Reaumur — " il faut porter la foi humaine plus loin qu'il n'est permis
a des hommes eclaires, pour le croire sur le premier temoignage de
celui qui le raconte, et assure I'avoir vu. Peut-on se resoudre a
croire qu'il y ait dans la nature des aniraaux qu'on multiplie en les
hachant, pour ainsi dire, par raorceaux ?" * But this illustrious na-
turalist was himself the first to promulgate, and experimentally to
verify, the discoveries of Abraham Trembley, which have been fully
confirmed by many subsequent inquirers, and are now made so familiar
to us by their admission into elementary works and treatises on na-
tural theology, that we read of them with little surprise and without
incredulousness.

* Hist, des Insectes, vi. pref. 49.

Fig. VI.

FAMILY 11. TUBULARIAD^.

2. CoRYNE,* Gsertner.
Character. — Polypes Jixed, single^ naked, cylindrical, 07'
claviform hut contractile, the head with scattered Jilifoi'm smooth
tentncula •■ mouth ?

1. C. SQUAMATA, body more or less clavate ; the tentacula
shorter than the body. Gaertner.-f-

Plate II.

Hydra squamata, Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 230, no. 2786. Zool. Dan. tab.

iv. fig. 1-3. Fabric. Faun. Groenl. 347 Polyporum species margine

conchee insidentes, Bast. Opusc. Subsec. i. 44, tab. 5, fig. 2, c Tubu-

* Coryne = clava = a club.

■)■ Goertner, Joseph, M. D. a native of Wurtemburg, born in 1 732 ; elected
F. R. S. in 1761 ; died in 1791. Having visited England, he made several
zoological discoveries on the southern coast, published in the Phil. Trans., and
the Spicilegia Zoologica of Pallas. He is celebrated for his work " De Fruc-
tibus et Seminibus Plantarum." There is an interesting biographical sketch of
him in Thomson's Histonj of the Royal Societt/, p. 46-7.

110 Z. IIYDROIDA. CoRYNE.

laria affinis, Turt. Gmel. iv. 6G8. Turt. Brit. Faun. 210. Stew. Elem. ii.

438. Bosc, Vers. iii. 92. Coryne squamata, Jameson in Wem. Mem. i.

565. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 62, 2de edit. ii. 73. Bosc, Vers. ii. 279.

Fleming in Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 87- Flem. Pbil. Zool. ii. 616, tab. 5.

fig. 1. Flem. Brit. Anim. 553. Coldstreamin Edin. New Pbil. Journ. ix.

234. Stark, Elem. ii. 443 La Coryne ecailleuse, Blainv. Actinolog.

471 C. multieornis, Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 419 Hy-
dra capitata, Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 230.
Hab. Parasitical on sea weeds, corallines, stones and dead shells,
at and within low-water mark. " On the shore of the island of Bur-
ra, and on the Holm of Cruster, in Bressay Sound, in Shetland,"
Jameson. At Abercoru ; and at the Isle of May, i?ei;. /)r i^/em««^.
Island of Bute, Dr Coldstream. Maybole, Ayrshire, Rev. George
Gray. " Found in great plenty on Fucus vesiculosus at the White
House Point, Belfast Lough ; Aug. 1807," J. Templeton, Esq. In
Berwick Bay, not uncommon.

Polypes in general gregarious, fixed by a narrow disk, from two to
six or eight lines in height ; clavate or cylindrical with a knobbed
head, rose-coloured or wliite, smooth, fleshy ; the head or upper part
furnished with from 5 to 25 scattered filiform tentacula, which are
usually much shorter than the body, and not always of equal lengths.
In gravid individuals the oviform gemmules hang from the bases of
the tentacula in one or several clusters ; they are of a round or el-
liptical figure, rose-coloured with a darker centre, and large in pro-
portion to the animal.

Towards the roots of the tentacula we can frequently observe a
reddish spot which probably indicates the position of the stomach ;
and a dusky line prolonged down the centre of the body appears to
show that the latter is hollow, the canal being doubtless intestinal.
The tentacula are also tubular, as I infer from their being marked
with a similar line : unlike those of the Hydra they are smooth, or
merely crenulate, but like them they are capable of being shortened
and elongated at will, though to a less extent. The form of the body
is also varied at pleasure, but all its motions are slow, and indicate a
very inferior degree of irritability. I have never been able to disco-
ver a mouth or aperture on the top on the body, but Dr Coldstream
says, " after having been kept in small vessels of sea-water for some
hours, without renewal of the water, some of the animals protrude
the inner surface of the mouth, so as to present a convex disc, with
the tentacula ranged round it." — The young are of a fine pink or rose
colour : at first they resemble little smooth rounded tubercles, which
gradually elongate, and soon acquire one, then two, three or four
tentacula, and so on imtil the number of maturity is completed, for
these organs are developed in succession.

Hermia. Z HYDROIDA. Ill

The clavate rose-ivd specimens I have generally found between
tide marks, and the white ones with a long filiform stalk on dead
shells dredged from deeper water. On the latter is undoubtedly
founded the " Hydra capitata aiha, pedunculo riigoso longo, cir-
ris capitis longitiidine" of MuUer ; while the former answer better
to his H. squamata, but although at one time disposed to consider
them distinct, I am now satisfied of their identity as species, for they
graduate so insensibly into one another as to lose even the character
of fixed varieties. I am also led to suspect that the H. brevicornis
and viinuticornis of Muller, Zool. Dan. prod. p. 230, will be found
to be modifications of this species.

The Hydra Tuba of Sir J. G. Dalyell probably belongs to this
genus, and may be distinguished by its tentacula being much longer
than the body. It inhabits the Frith of Forth near Edinburghj where
its natural abode seems the internal concavity of the upper oyster-
shell. It extends " about two inches in whole, with its long white
tentacula waving like a beautiful silken pencil in the water. It pro-
pagates by an external shapeless bud issuing fi'om the side of the pa-
rent, and withdrawing, though very long connected by a ligament,
on approaching maturity. In thirteen months a single specimen had
eighty-three descendants. Singular and distorted forms appear from
the successive and irregular evolution of the buds, during subsistence
of the connecting ligament." Edin. New Phil. Journ. xvii. 411 ;
xxi. 92. and Rep. Brit. Assoc, an. 1834, p. 599.

3. Hermia,* Johnston.
Character. — Polype fixed., slieatUeJ. in a thin horny mem-
brane, clavate or branched and suhpliytoidal, the apices of the
branches clubbed and furnished laith scattered glandular tentacu-
la : mouth 0.

1. H. Glandulosa, irregularly or dichotomously branched ;

* I found the name in Shakspeare ;

" What wicked and dissembling glasse of mine,

" Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne."
When I defined this genus in the Mag. Zool. and Bot. V. ii. p. 326, I was not
aware that the same had been instituted by Sars under the name of Stipula, and
by Ehrenberg who called it Syncoryne. The latter designation is in direct oppo-
sition to the Linntean axiom — " generic names, derived from others by the ad-
dition of a syllable, are disapproved ;" — and Sars' name seems to me even more
inadmissible, since it is a descriptive term in Botany. The fancy that the glands
which surround the heads were the guardians of the animal, — its " sphery eyne"
— suggested the name here adopted.

112 Z. HYDIIOIDA. Hermia.

the tentacula shorter than the enlarged heads of the branches.

Gaertner.

Vignette, No. 12, and Plate IV. Fig 1, 2.
Tubularia Corjaia, Turt. Gmel. iv. 668. Turt. Brit. Faun. 210. Stew.

Elem. ii. 438. Bosc. Vers. iii. 91. Hydra ramosa, Fabric. Faun.

Groenl. 348 Coryne Glandulosa, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 62. 2de

edit. ii. 74. Fleming in Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 87, and viii. 295. Flem.

Phil. Zool. ii. 616, tab. v. fig. 2. Flem. Brit. Anim. 533. Encyclop.

Method, tab. 69. fig. 15, 16. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 253 ;

and in Mag. Nat. Hist. v. 631. fig. 110. C. glanduleuse. Blainv. Ac-

tinol. 471. pi. 85, fig. 3, 3 a Coryne, Lister in Phil. Trans, an.

1834, p. 376. pi. 10. fig. 3.
Hah. On the under surface of stones between tide-marks ; on old
shells, and often parasitical on Tubularia indivisa. Isle of May ; and
on the Bell Rock on the coast of Angus, Rev. Dr Fleming. May-
bole, Ayrshire, 7?^?'. Geo. Gray. Brighton, J/r Z«>^e>-. Scarborough,
Mr Bean. Berwick Bay.

Polypes adherent by a tubular fibre which creeps along the surface
of the object on which they grow, seldom an inch in height, irregu-
larly branched, the stem filiform, tubular, horny, subpellucid, wrink-
led and sometimes ringed at intervals, especially at the origin of the
branches, each of which is terminated with an oval or clubshaped
head of a reddish colour, and armed v.'ith short scattered tentacula
tipt with a globular apex. The ends of the branches are not perfo-
rated, but completely covered with a continuation of the horny sheath
of the stem. The animal can bend its armed heads at will, or give
to any separate tentaculura a distinct motion and direction, but all its
movements are very slow and leisured.

When parasitical on Tubularia this zoophyte surrounds the stalks,
for the space of an inch or more, with a thick beard-like mossiness
composed of entangled corneous fibres, not coarser than a sewing
thread, and more irregularly branched than when the polypes have
greater freedom to spread. This variety is figured on Plate IV. Fig.
1, 2. The stem is filled with a pulpous medulla, enlarged in the
heads and continued up the tentacula, the round tips of which ap-
peared to be smooth and areolar under a magnifier, but Mr Lister
says they are covered with " short projections like blunt hairs,"
" and it seems to be by their means that the polypi attach with a
touch, or release at will, substances that drift within their reach."
Mixed with the tentacula, on some heads, there are a few round and
larger bodies of a deep red colour in the centre with a transparent al-
buminous envelope : these are supported on a very short stalk, and

are evidently the gemmules by which this .s])ecies is propagated.

3

TuBULARiA. Z. HYDROIDA. 113

On examining a few tubes under the microscope I perceived in one of
them, and only in one, a crowd of minute elliptical bodies which were
in active motion, running up the tube on one side, and down on the
other, but frequently crossing, nor was it uncommon to see one ac-
celerate its pace and beat the others in the race. The tube had lost
its head, and the moving bodies were evidently, as I think, infusory
animalcules which had got admission into it ; — the currents they
created are therefore to be distinguished from those observed by Mr
Lister, analogous to the circulation in the Tubularia and Sertula-
riadae.

4. Tubularia,* Linnaeus.
Character. — Polypidom rooted, more or less plant-like, hor-
7iy,Jistular, simple or branched ; no cells — Polypes protruding at
the ends of the tubes or branchlets, non-retractile, the head crested
with one or two circles oftentacida.

* Tubes undivided.
L T. iNDiviSA, tid)es clustered, simple, cylindrical, narrowed
and interwoven at the base : head of the polype crested with tivo
rows of tentacula. E. Lhwyd. f

Plate IIL Fig. 1, 2.
Remarkable Sea-plant, Lhwyd m Phil. Trans, abridg. vi. 7.3, pi. .0, fig. 1.

(pessima.) Adianti aurei minimi facie planta marina, Rail, Syu. 31,

no. 4. Jussieu in Mem. Acad. Roy. des So. 1742, p. 296, tab. 10, fig.

2. Tubular coralline like oaten pipes, Ellis in Phil. Trans, xlviii.

tab. 17, fig. D. Ibid, abridg. x. 453, pi. 10, fig. D. Corall. 31, no.

2. tab. 16, fig. C. Tubularia indivisa, Lin. Syst. 1301. Soland.

Zooph. 31. Berk. Syn. i. 214. Turt. Gmel. iv. 666. Blumenb. Man.
272. Turt. Brit. Faun. 210. Steiu. Elem. ii. 437. Wern. Mem. i.
563. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 110. 2de edit. ii. 125. Lamour. Cor.

* Formed from tuhulus — a little hollow pipe.

t Edward Lhwyd or Lloyd (as Dillenius spells the name) was born in 1670
and died in July 1709. He was keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and
was distinguished among his contemporaries for knowledge in antiquities and
natural history. " He is indeed," writes Archdeacon Nicolson, afterwards
Bishop of Carlisle, and a very competent judge, " if I may judge of him, the
greatest man (at antiquities and natural philosophy together) that I have had
the happiness to converse with." Letters to R. Thoreshy, F. R. S. v. i. p. 206.
Ray gratefully records his assistance in the Synopsis and Hist. Plantarum ; and
Petiver frequently mentions him as his " worthy," " curious," and " generous
friend." Of his life and writings the reader wall find an account in Pulteney's
Sketches of Botany in England, v. ii. p. 110-116 : and some additional particu-
lars in the " Analecta Scotica," especially in the Seco7id Series published at
Edinburgh during the present year.

H

114 Z. HYDROIDA. Tubularia.

Flex. 230. Corall. 100. Cuv. Reg. Anim. iii. 299. Bosc, Vers, iii. 89,
pi. 28, fig. 3. Fkm. Brit. Anim. 552. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc.
ii. 252. Dalyell in Edin. New Pbil. Journ. xvii. 411 ; and xxi, 93;
and in RejJ. Brit. Assoc, an. 1834, 600. Lister in Pliil. Trans, an. 1834,

366, pi. 8, fig. I Tub. calamaris. Pall. Elench. 81 Tub. gigan-

tea, Lamour. Soland. 17, tab. 68, fig. 5 Tub. gracilis? Harvey in

Proc. Zool. Soc. no. 41, p. 54 La Tubulaire ehalumeau, Blainv.

Actinolog. 470.

Hub. On shells and stones from deep water. Leith shore ; Ork-
ney and Shetland Islands, Professor Jameson. Scarborough, Mr
Bean. Coast off Dunstanborough Castle, 31r R. Emhleton. Cul-
lercoats, Northumberland, 3Ir J. Alder. Berwick Bay.

The tubes are simple or sometimes divided once at the base, where
they are twisted and flexuous, fistular, even, continuous or sometimes
wrinkled at distant intervals with a few annulations, horn-coloured,
from 6 to 12 inches in height, and about a line in diameter. Ellis's
comparison of them to " part of an oat-straw, with the joints cut oiF,"
is very apt. They are filled with a soft almost fluid reddish-pink pulp
in organic connection with the Polypes, which project from the open
ends of the tubes, and are not retractile within them. The body, or
naked portion, of the polype forms a globular knob of a scarlet colour,
produced above into a sort of proboscis encircled with a series of nu-
merous short tentacula of the same colour. Around the base of this
body there is another circle of much long-er tentacula from 30 to 40
in number ; and between their insertion and the body clusters of ovi-
form g-emmules are produced at certain seasons. The neck of the
polype is greatly constricted ; and we find that the recent tube is
marked with several longitudinal pale lines, placed at equal distances,
and which are evidently caused by some structure of the interior pulp,
for when empty the tubes exhibit no such appearance. What is their
relation to the currents observed by Mr Lister? — As the animal be-
comes weak when kept in a basin of sea-water, the head drops off,
like a flower from its stalk ; and if it is immersed, even when most
vivacious, in fresh-water, the pulp is expelled from the tubes until
these are almost emptied. If this is efl"ected by a contraction of the
tube (and the phenomenon is not otherwise easily explained), does
not this imply a degree of irritability in the polypidom inconsistent
with the theory of its extravascular character ?

I can find no characters either in the description or fig-ure of Tub.
gigantea which warrant its separation as a distinct species. The
character of Lamouroux is : " T. tubulis rectis, simplicissimis, ad
basim attenuatis, gradatim dilatatis, deinde tequali crassitie, laevibus
nitidisque." — Neither do I find in Mr Harvey's description of his

TuBULARiA. Z. HYDROIDA. 115

Tub. gracilis any essential specific character : the differences he points
out between it and T. indivisa seem to depend on the pecuHar locali-
ty of the former, viz. on chains or wood exposed to a rapid current.

2. T. Larynx, tubes clustered, slender, cylindrical, ringed at
regular intervals : polypes tvith a double series of tentacula.
Plate III. Fig-. 3, and Plate IV. Fig. 3-5.

Var. a. The tubes simple or undivided. Plate III. Fig. 3. Fucus Dealensis
fistulosus, laryngae similis, Raii, Syn. i. 39, no. 8. Petiv. Oper. iii. 39,
no. 406. Ellis in Phil. Trans, abridg. x. 453, pi. 10, fig. c, and xi. pi.
5, fig. 3, young Tubulous Coralline wrinkled like the windpipe, El-
lis, Corall. 30, no. 1. tab. 16, fig. h. Corallina tubularia laryngi similis,
Bast. Opusc. Subs. 41, tab- 2, fig. 3-4 ; and tab. 3, fig. 2-4 Tubu-
laria muscoides. Pall. Elench. 82. Berk. Syn. i. 214. Turt. Gmel. iv. 667.
Turt. Brit. Faun. 210. Stetv. Elem. ii. 438. Bosc, Vers, iii. 90. Flem. Brit.

Anim. 552. Tub. Larynx, Soland. Zooph. 31. Lavi. Anim. s. Vert.

ii- 110. Hogg's Stock. 34. — La Tub. muscoide, Blainv. Actinolog. 470.

Var. b. The tubes sparingly and irregidarhj branched. Plate IV. Fig. 3,

4, 5, and Plate V. fig. 3, 4. Tubularia muscoides ? Lin. Syst. 1302.

Corall. 101. Fistularia muscoides ? Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 254, no.

3068 Fistulana muscoides ? Fabric. Faun. Groenl. 442.

Hab. On shells, corallines, Sec. beyond low-water mark, (a.)
" Found about Deal by the Reverend Mr Hugh Jones* and Mr
James Cuninghame f " Petiver. " Found in great plenty in the
sea, near the opening- of the Thames, adhering to other marine bodies,
and often to the bottoms of ships," Ellis. Stockton-on-Tees, J. Hogg,
Esq. Scarborough, Mr Bean. — (b.) Berwick Bay, parasitical on Tu-
bularia indivisa and ramea.

Polype-tubes, in var. a, clustered, about 2 inches in height, un-
divided and fiHform, more or less entwined at the base, of a thin pel-
lucid pale corneous texture, wrinkled and annulatedat intervals, whence

* " A very curious person in all parts of Natural History, particularly in Fos-
sils, some of whicli he hath sent me from Maryland, \\Tth several volumes of
Plants very finely preserved ; with divers Insects and Shells. From this oblig-
ing gentleman, I am promised frequent remittances of whatever those parts af-
ford, as well Animals and Fossils as Vegetables." — Petiver.

f Cuninghame was a Surgeon, probably in the East India Company's service,
and had visited those places which lie in the course of its trade, whence he
brought numerous plants, &c. to enrich the museum of Petiver. The latter styles
him " that industrious promoter of Natural Philosophy, and my very ingenious
friend ;" — " my very worthy friend ;" — " my hearty friend ;" and the 20th plate
of Petiver's English Plants is gratefidly dedicated to the memorij of this " his
curious friend," to whom he says he was " beyond expression obliged."
Cuninghame is the author of a paper on the plants of the island of Ascension
in Phil. Trans, no. 255 ; and seems to have deserved the praises which his con-
temporaries bestowed.

110 Z. HYDROIDA. Tubularia.

each tube assumes somewhat the appearance of the wind-pipe of a
small bird. In var. b, the tubes are distinguished by being- slightly
branched, the branches coming- off irregularly and at vai'ious angles.
They rise to about 3 inches in height, and are smooth in a fresh state,
but when dried exhibit the annulations distinctly, especially at the
origin of the branches. The naked body of the polypes is rose-red,
more or less deeply tinted, while the tentacula are milk-white, or
sometimes faintly tinged with red. Of these there are two series :
one round the oral aperture composed of short threads usually held in
an erect position ; the other forms a circle round the most bulging
part of the body, and consists of more than 20 long filaments which
spread like rays from a centre, or droop elegantly, being usually held
still, or allowed listlessly to follow the undulations of the water.
When the polypes are all displayed, they afford a very interesting
and pretty spectacle, equalled by no other species I have seen, the
crimson heads contrasting finely with their white polypidoms, es-
pecially when loaded with the gemmules which pullulate from the
inner side of the bases of the inferior tentacula. When few in num-
ber and immature these gemmules are sessile and separate, but in
their progress to evolution they form grape-like clusters : each sepa-
rate gemmule is of a roundish or oval shape, consisting of a white al-
buminous coat with a dark red cylindrical centre. — Plate IV. Fig. 5.
According to Agardh and Lamouroux the Tubularia muscoides of
Linnaeus is distinct from the T. Larynx of Ellis and Solander, but
his specific character — " T. cuhnis subdicJiotomis, totis annuloso-ru-
gosis," — answers sufficiently to our b in a dried state to induce me to
quote it as a synonyme, the more so as Linnaeus refers to Ellis's fi-
gure for a representation of what he intended. The Tubularia po-
lyceps of Sir J. G. Dalyell in Rep. Brit. Assoc, an. 1834, p 601, and
Edin. New. Phil. Journ. xxi. 93, appears to be referable to the same
variety. From the observations of this ingenious naturalist we must
infer that the mimher o\ tentacula is an uncertain character : he says,
" a specimen had originally 21 tentacula, but only 16 were renovated
with the second head ; and with the seventh they had diminished to
six.

* * Tubes ramous. (Eudendrium, Ehrenberg.)
t3. T. RAMOSA, tube single, irregularly branched, the branches
erecto-patent, ringed and rather narrower at their origins : poly-
pes with a single series oj" tentacula. J. Ellis.

Small ramified tubular coralline, Ellis, Corall. 31, No. 3, tab. 16, fig. a ; and
tab. 17, fig. a, A Tubularia trichoides, Pall. Elencb. 84. T.

TuBULARiA. Z. HYDROIDA. 117

ramosa, ZiK. Syst. 1302. Soland. Zooph. 32. Berk. Syn. i. 214. Turt.
Gmel. iv. 6G6. Turt. Brit. Faun. 210. Stew. Elem. ii. 437. Wern.
Mem. i. 56S. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 110. 2de edit. ii. 12G. Bosc,
Vers, iii. 89. Lamonr. Corall. Trans. 101. Flem. Brit. Anim. 552.
Hogg's Stock. 34. Stark, Elem. ii. 441, pi. 8, fig. 15. Templeton in

Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 466 Fistiilaria ramosa. Mull. Zool. Dan. prod.

254, no. 3067 Fistulaiui ramosa. Fabric. Faun. Groenl. 441 — Tu-

bulaire rameuse et trichoide, Blainv. Actinolog. 470, pi. 30, fig. 3, 3 a,
copied from Ellis.
ffab. On oysters and other marine productions. " At Whitstable
on the Kentish shore ;" and " at Emsvvorth, on the borders of Sussex,"
£^/lis. " Leith shore, found by the late Mr Mackay," Jameson.
Very common on stones, muscle and oyster shells near Stockton-on-
Tees, J. Hogg, Esq. " Found on the shore of Dublin Bay," Tem-
pleton.

Though said to be common, I am but imperfectly acquainted with
this species, which it must be difficult to distinguish from the branch-
ed variety of the preceding- except in a living- state, when the polypes
afford a certain means of discrimination in the arrangement of their
tentacula. In size and texture the two species seem to be nearly
alike. Ellis says, " I have often met with specimens of this coral-
line that have been regularly branched in a doubly pinnated form ;
and when I was at Emsvvorth, on the borders of Sussex, I found a spe-
cimen of this Tubularia, with its ovaries placed in a circle round the
lower part of its heads." I have had small and imperfect specimens
of Thoa halecina sent me as T. ramosa ; nor is it impossible to mis-
take the variety of Hermia glandulosa which infests Tubularia indi-
visa for it. Lamouroux and Blainville make of Ellis' figure in Plate
XVI. their Tub. trichoides, and they restrict the name ramosa to that
figured in Plate XVII., but Ellis himself knew no difference, nor am I
aware on what grounds these authors place the distinctions between
them.

4. T. RAMEA, arborescent, the stem and branches formed of
agglutinated fUform tubes irregularly branched : polypes with a
single series of tentacula.

Plate V. Fig. 1, 2.

Tubularia ramea. Pall. Elench. 83. Bosc, Vers, iii. 90. T. ramosa,

Johnston in Trans. Newc Soc ii. 253, pi. 10 Fistulana ramosa?

Fabric. Faun. Groenl. 441 Thoa Savignii? Lamour. Corall. 93,

pi. 6, fig. 2, male.
Hub. On old shells and on stones from deep water. Shetland and
Leith shore, Dr Coldstream. Frequent on the coasts of Northum-
berland and Berwickshire.

118 Z. HYDROIDA. Tubularia.

This coralline so perfectly resembles a tree in miniature, deprived
of its leaves, that persons unacqiiainted with the nature of zoophytes
cannot be persuaded that it is not of a vegetable nature. It is from
3 to 6 inches high, rooted by a densely interwoven mass of tubular
fibres, which by their cohesion and intertwining form the stem, which
is sometimes as thick as the little finger. This is irregularly divided
into many compound branches, formed like the stalk itself, but the
ultimate branches consist of a single short tube, ringed at the base,
and terminated by the non-retractile polypes. The separate tubes
are filiform, not thicker than ordinary thread, of earthy brown colour,
horny, wrinkled at intervals. The polypes placed at the extremities
of the branches are of a reddish colour and appear indolent in dispo-
sition, contracting slowly under external irritations : they have about
twenty whitish tentacula arranged in one row round a broad oral
disk.

It is possible this may be a state of T. ramosa, but its arborescent
character and the complexness of its structure are so remarkable
that I have willingly followed the example of Pallas, who has given
a description of the species in his usual accurate and expressive style.
I find it noticed by no other author, unless perhaps by Otho Fabri-
cius, but his description is not sufficiently explicit to remove all
doubts of the correctness of his synonyme. The Sertolara racemosa
of Cavolini, Polip. Mar. p. J 60, tav. 6, fig. 1, is a nearly alhed
species.

The Tubularia flabelliformis of Adams in Lin. Trans, v.
12. {Turt. Gmel. iv. 669. Turt. Brit. Faun. 211. Stew. Elem ii.438.)
is a minute parasitical alga of the family Diatomacese.

Fig. 13.

FAMILY III. SERTULARIADiE.

5. Thoa,* Lamouroux.
Character. — Polypidoms rooted, arbuscidar : the stem com-
posed of aggregated suhparallel capillary tubes ; the branches al-
ternate, spreading bifariously : cells tubular, indistinct, alter-
nate : ovarian-vesicles irregularly scattered. — Polypes hydraform,
scarcely retractile loithin their cells.

1. T. HALECiNA, vesicles oval, the aperture shortly tubuloiis
subterminal. Mr. Newton. -f-

Plate VL

* From fleof, sharj) ; or more probably a mispelling of Thoe — one of the
Nereids.

f Mr James Newton, a good practical botanist, contemporary with Ray, to
whom he sent many contributions for the Synop. Stirp. Brit., and the Hist.
Plantarum. He died before the publication of the 3d edition of the Synopsis
in 1724, but Dillenius acknowledges his obligations, and introduced several
species into our Flora, for the first time, on Newton's authority. I am not aware

120 Z. HYDROIDA. Thoa.

Coralliiia scniposa pennata, cauliculis crassiusculis rigidis, Eaii, Sjii. i. 36,

no. 15 Herring-bone Coralline, Ellis in Phil. Trans, abridg. x. 454.

pi. 10. fig. E, F, G. Coral. 17, no. 15, pi. 10. Phil. Trans, xlviii, 506,

pi. 17, fig. f, E Sertularia halecina, Lin. Syst. 1308. Pall, Elench.

113. Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 255. Fabr. Faun. Groenl. 443. Ellis and
Soland. Zooph. 46. Berk. Syn. i. 217. Turt. Gmel. iv. 678. Turt. Brit.
Faun, 213. Wern. Mem. i. 564. Stew. Elem. ii. 442. Bosc, Vers,iii. 109.
Lam. Anim. s. vert. ii. 1 1 9. 2de edit. ii. 1 46. Hogg's Stockton, 32. Flem.
Brit. Anim. 542. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 259, pi. 12, fig. 2.

Thoa halecina, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 211. Corallina, 93. Templeton

in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 468 La Thoa halecine, Blainv. Actinol. 488,

pi. 84, fig. 4, 4 a.
Hah. On old shells and stones in deep water, common. Common
on oyster shells in the Frith of Forth, Prof. Jameson. Vicinity of
Stockton-on-Tees, J. Hogg, Esq. Found on the shore of Belfast
Lough, Mr Templeton. Cork Harbour, J. V. Thompson. Coasts
of N. Durham aud Berwickshire.

Polypidom from 4 to 6 inches high, fixed by numerous fibres " ir-
regularly matted together like apiece of sponge," of an earthy-brown
colour, stiff, brittle when dry, irregularly branched, the stem and prin-
cipal branches composite, tapered upwards, pinnate ; the pinnae alter-
nate, patent. Cells alternate, tubular, bi-articulate, the aperture
even. Vesicles unilateral, scattered, of an oval shape " with a tube
arising from the pedicle, and passing up on one side to a little above

the top of each," Ellis Young specimens are often partially

coloured a bright yellow, dependent apparently on the colour of the in-
terior pulp. When the specimen is recent and clean the cells are seen
to be divided by one or two wrinkles or joints, but in general they
are obscurely marked.

2. T. Beanii, vesicles calceoliform, the aperture suhcentral^

shortly tuhulous. Mr William Bean.*

Plate VII. Fig. 1, 2.
Hah. " Near Scarborough, in deep water, very rare," Mr Bean.
Polypidom 1 1 inch high, irregularly branched, the branches alternate,
spreading, the principal composed of many parallel tubes, the ulti-
mate of a single tube, with a joint between each cell, which is small,

that any genus of plants has been dedicated to his memory, — an honour of which
he seems not unworthy. He must not be confounded with another James New-
ton, author of a " Compleat Herbal," Lond. 1752.

"■ Mr B. of Scarborough, well known to naturalists generally by his numerous
discoveries in British Zoology, recent and fossil. To some of his new species
the trivial name fabalis has been applied, but the justice of such a conceit or
puzzle is questionable, since it veils the discoverer's name from those who are
not good guessers.

SfiRTULARiA. Z. HYDllOIDA. 121

articulated, cylindrical or somewhat dilated at the aperture. Vesicles
mimerous, scattered or imperfectly clustered, large and shaped some-
what like the flower of a Calceolaria, with a short tubulous aperture
in the middle of its concavity, which is on the superior and inner as-
pect.

I have named this curious and very interesting species after its
discoverer, to whose kindness I am indebted for the specimen that fur-
nished our figure and description. In habit and structure it closely
resembles Th. halecina, from which it is, however, at once distin-
guished by its remarkable ovaries.

3. T. MURiCATA, vesicles roundish or ovate, echinated. Dr
David Skene.

Plate VII. Fig. 3, 4.
Sertularia muricata, Ellis and Soland. Zoopb. 59, pi. 7, fig. 3, 4. Turt.
Gmel. iv. 681. Turt. Brit. Faun. 215. Stew. Elem. ii. 445. Jame-
son in Wem- Mem. i. 564. Flem. Brit. Anim. 543. Hogg's Stockton,

34. JBosc, Vers, iii. 115 Laomedea muricata, Lamoiir. Cor. Flex-

209. Corallina, 92 La Sertulaire muriquee, Blainv. Aotinol. 480.

La Campaniilaire muriquee, Ibid. 473.
Hah. On old shells in deep water. The sea at Aberdeen, Skene.
Frith of Forth, Jameson. Seaton, J. Hogg. Near Scarboi'ough,
TV. Bean.

Polypidom from 2 to 4 inches high, rooted by a fibrous entangled
mass, irregularly bi'anched, stout and rigid, yellowish-brown ; the
stem and branches composed of capillary tortuous tubes closely ag-
glutinated, but the extremities of some of them become free and ap-
pear hke simple fibres ; branches erecto-patent, slightly tapered at
the point. Cells visible only on the simple fibres, small, alternate,
separated by an oblique joint, sessile, campanulate, with an entire
even aperture. Vesicles very numerous and often crowded, shortly
stalked, roundish or ovate, somewhat compressed, and rough with
prickles arranged in lines on elevated striae : when filled with ova the
centre is of a deep chesnut-brown colour.

May not the obscure Sertularia echinata of Linnaeus be re-
ferable to this species ?

6. Sertularia,* Linnaeus.
Character. Polypidoms rooted, plant like, variously branch-
ed, the divisions or branches formed of a sinr/le tube divided at
regular intervals by imperfect septa : cells paired or arranged in

* From sertula, the diniiruitive of serta, a garland.

122 Z. HYDROIDA. Sektularia.

tuw opposite rotos, sessile, distinct and separated by a joint from
the stem, short icith everted apertures : vesicles scattered. — Po-
lypes hydraform.

* Cells distinctly alternate.
1. S. PoLYZONiAS, erect, subjlexuous ; cells ovate, with a
wide somewhat uneven aperture ; vesicles obovate, wririkled across^
the orifice contracted and plain. Mr Newton,
Plate VIII. Fig. 1, 2, 3.
Corallina minus ramosa, alterna vice denticiilata, Raii, Syn. 35, no. 13,

tab. 2, fig. 4, male Great Tooth Coralline, Ellis, Coral. 5, no. 3,

pi. 2, fig. a, A. and pi. 38, fig. 1, A. Sertularia polyzonias, Lin.

Syst. 1312. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 37. Berk. Syn. i. 219. Turt.
Gmel. iv. 683. Blumenb. Man. 273. Turt. Brit. Faun. 216. Wern.
Mem. i. 564. Stew. Elem. ii. 447. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 117. 2de
edit, ii 142. Lamour. Cor. Flex. 190. Corallina, 83. Risso, L'Europ.
merid. v. 130. Bosc, Vers, iii. 119. Hogg's Stockton, 31. Flejn.
Brit. Anim. 542. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 256. Templeton

in Mag. Nat. Hist ix. 468 S. ericoides, Pall. Elench. 127 Ser-

tolara polizonia, Cavol. Polip. Mar. 224, tav. 8, fig. 12-14 La Ser-

tulaire zonee, Blainv. Actinolog. 480.
Hah. On shells and other corallines, in deep water. Near Queen-
borough in the island of Sheppey, Ellis. Leith shore, Jameson.
Coast of Ayrshire, Mr P. W. Maclagan. On the shore of Belfast
Lough, Templeton. Cork Harbour, J. V. Thompson. Scarborough,
Mr Bean. Coasts of N. Durham and Berwickshire. — (/3.) Corn-
wall, Pallas. Isle of Wight, Ellis. Berwickshire.

Polypidoms affixed by a creeping tubular fibre, from 1 to 2 inches
high, of a yellowish horn-colour, filiform and slender, scarcely zig-
zag, simple or sparingly branched in general, but specimens occasion-
ally occur which are bifariously pinnated ; the pinnae alternate, erec-
to-patent. Cells rather distant with an oblique joint in the stem
above the origin of each of them, urceolate, smooth, the aperture wide
and obsoletely tridentate. Polypes white or sometimes bright-yel-
low, with numerous tentacula. Vesicles large, sessile, ovate with a
short tiibulous apex, smooth or transversely wrinkled on the upper
half.

Pallas describes a variety (/3) worthy of notice, not unfrequent
on the coast of Cornwall, 3 inches and upwards in height, with
a compound stem, and branched in a pinnate manner similar to Thoa
halecina, which this variety indeed very closely resembles. Ellis
mentions that he had received specimens of the same from the Isle of
Wight ; and I have found it on the coast of Berwickshire. In the col-
lection of my friend Dr Coldstream there are specimens also, from

Sertularia. Z. HYDROIUA. 123

the Cape of Good Hope, of a still greater size and more robust and
shrubby habit, with numerous and compound branches, — evidencing-
the genial intluence of climate on the growth and appearance of these
corallines.

2. S. Ellisii, climbiny^ Jlexuous ; the cells urceolate, bulged
at the hase^ with a ^-toothed rim : vesicles with the opening 4-
toothed. Ellis.

Ellis, Corall. (j, pi. 2, fig. h, B. Sertularia Ellisii, M. Edwards in Lam.
Anim. s. Vert. ii. 142, 2de edit.

Hah. Parasitical on other corallines.

Under the " Great-tooth Coralline" Ellis describes this shortly :
" The other species, which is the climbing one, is more branched,
the denticles are placed more asunder, and their mouths are wider :
The vesicles of both species are wrinkled." It has been always con-
sidered a variety of the preceding until separated from it by Milne-
Edwards on what appear to be sufficient characters of distinction.
I have seen no specimen.

3. S. Templetoni, ^^ stems simple ; cells short and narroio.*^
Mr Templeton.*

Sertularia Temijletoni, Fleming in Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 88. Flem. Brit.

Anim. 543 — La S. de Templeton, iJ/flin;;. Actinolog. 480. Lam. Anim.

s. Vert. ii. 152, 2d edit.

Hab. " Loch of Belfast, Mr Templeton," Fleming.

" Height about an inch ; slightly branched ; cells narrow, tubular,

produced ; the vesicles oval, lengthened, narrow at the base, covered

towards the summit with lanceolate spines. This species is of a

more delicate texture than the preceding, (Thoa muricata), the ve-
sicles are of a different shape, and the stem is simple. It was given
to me by an accomplished naturalist, the late Mr Templeton of Orange
Grove, Belfast. It adheres apparently to a gramineous leaf, proba-
bly of a zostera, and therefore may be considered an inhabitant of shal-
low water." Fleming.

4. S. KUGOSA, cells ovate, twinkled transversely, the mouth nar-
row with 3 or 4 small teeth on the rim. J. Ellis.

Pirate VIII. Fig. 4, 5, 6.

Snail-trefoil Coralline, EUis, Corall. 26, no. 23, tab, 15, fig. a, A

Sertularia rugosa, Lin. Syst. L308. Pall. Elench. 126. Ellis and Soland.

* John Templeton, Esq. bom in Belfast in 1 766, where he died, I believe, in
1827. For an interesting memok see the Mag. Nat. Hist. v. i. p. 403, and v.
ii. p. 305.

124 Z. HYDROIDA. Sektularia.

Zooph. 52. BeTk. Syn. i. 216. Fahr. Faun. Groenl. 443. Turt. Gmel.

iv. 678. Wem. Mem. i. 364. Tar^ Brit. Faun. 213. Stew.Eiem.n.

442. Lam. Anim. s. vert. ii. 121. 2d edit. ii. 149. Bosc, Vers, iii. 108.

Flem. Brit. Anim. 542. Hogg's Stockton, -32. Johnston in Trans. Newc

Soc ii. 257, pi. 11, fig. 3 Clytia rugosa, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 204.

Corallina, 89. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist, ix 466 La Campanu-

laire rugueux, Blainv. Actinol. 473.
Hab. Parasitical on Flustrae, Sponges and Fuci at low water-mark,
common. Brighthelrastone, Ellis- Near Hai'tlepool, common, Mr
Hogg. Leith shore, Jameson. Shores of N. Durham and Berwick-
shire.

A small species not exceeding an inch in height, and well distin-
guished by its strongly wrinkled cells which resemble a barrel in
miniature. Polypidoms gregarious, the shoots united by a radical
branching fibre, erect or creeping, obliquely twisted or ringed between
the cells, simple or sparingly branched, the branches irregular, pa-
tent. Cells crowded, alternate, subsessile, ovate, coarsely wrinkled,
especially when dried, contracted at the orifice which is obsoletely
tridentate. The ovarian vesicles are sparingly evolved, and differ
from the cells only in being a little larger, and in having three teeth
in the opening at the top of each. As a parasite it does not confine
itself to Flustra foliacea^ as Pallas would have us to believe, but in-
fests the roots and stems of many sea- weeds.

* * Cells in pairs, opposite or semialternate.
5. S. ROSACEA, cells opposite, tubulous, the upper half free and
divergent, the aperture entire, truncate ; vesicles croicned with
spines. Ellis.

Plate IX. Fig. 1, 2.
Lily or Pomegranate-flowering Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 8, no. 7, pi. 4, fig.

a, A. Phil. Trans, abridg. x. 492, pi. 12, fig. 5, s — H Sertularia

rosacea, Lin. Syst. 1300. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 39. Berk. Syn.
i. 215. Turt. Gmel. iv. 676. Turt. Brit. Faun. 212. Wern. Mem. i.
564. Stew. Elem. ii. 440. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 119. Bosc, Vers,
iii. 105. Hogg's Stockton, 32. Johnston in Trans Newc. Soc. ii. 258.

Templeton loc. cit. 468 Sert. nigellastrum. Pall Elench. 129..

Sert. abietina ? Fabric. Faun. Grcenl. 442. — Dynamena rosacea, La-

mour. Cor. Flex. 175. Corallina, 79. Flem. Brit. ;Anim. 544. La

Dynamene rosacee, Blainv. Actinol. 484.
Hah. Frequent on Corallines, and occasionally on old shells, from
deep water. At Brighthelmstone adhering to oyster-shells, Ellis.
Scarborough, Mr Bean. A rare species near Hartlepool, Hogg.
Coast at Dunstanborough Castle, Mr R, Embleton. Leith shore,
Jameson. Shore of Belfast Lough, Templeton. Coast of Berwick-
shire and N. Durham.

3

Sertularia.

Z. HYDllOIDA.

125

Polypidom from one to two inches in height, attached by a creep-
ing tortuous tubular fibre, very slender and delicate, of a white or
pale horn colour, pellucid, variously branched, the branches bifarious,
alternate, patent, similar to the stem. Cells opposite, with a joint
between each pair, rather long, tubular, the upper half suddenly di-
vergent with an oblique entire aperture. Ellis compares the vesicles
to a " Lily or Pomegranate flower just opening," but Pallas asserts
that the comparisons, as well as the figures of them in Ellis's work,
are inaccurate, — a criticism the truth of which Ellis denies in his sub-
sequent volume on zoophytes. They appear in fact to vary some-
what according to their age, and also from the manner in which they
have been dried. They are large and pear-shaped, subsessile, pucker-
ed at the top where they are crowned with several spines ;

Fig. 14.

and though scattered over the polypidom, they appear to be produced
from one side only, and are often arranged in close rows along the
branches. — Our figure is the exact portrait of a beautiful specimen
in the collection of Dr Coldstream ; and I have a similar one from Mr
Bean, but in general the species is very small and sparingly branched.

6. S. I^VMiLAy cells opposite, approximated, shortly tubular, the
top everted with an oblique somewhat mucronated aperture ; vesi-
cles ovate. Doody,*

Plate IX. Fig. 3, 4.

" Doody, Samuel, an apothecary in London, contemporary with Ray, Peti-
ver and Sloane, admitted F. R. S. in 1695. He was chosen superintendant and
demonstrator of the garden at Chelsea, an office which he held for some years
before his death, which took place in 1706- Petiver characterises him as an " in-
defatigable botanist," and "memorable naturalist." Jussieu speaks of him as
" inter Pharmacopoeos Londinenses sui temporis Coryphaeus." Pulteney styles
him, " the Dillenius of his time ;"and Brown has crowniedhis praise by bestow-
ing his name on a genus of New Holland plants. " In memoriam dixi Samuelis
Doody, Pharmacopoei Londinensis, qui primus fere in Auglia plantas cryptoga-

126 Z. HYDROIDA. Sertularia.

Coralliiia pumila repens, minus ramosa, Rail, Syn. i. 37, no- 19 C-

pumila erecta, lamosior, Ibid. 37, no- 20. pi. 2, fig. 1. Muscus ma-

rinus lendigenosus minimus arenacei coloris, Morris. Plant, hist, iii, 650,

tab. 9, fig. 2 Reaumur in Mem- de I'Acad. Roy. des Sc. an. 1711,

394, pi- 11, fig. 4, M Sea-oak Coralline, £Z/js, CoraU. 9, no. 8, pi.

5, fig a, A- Phil- Trans, xlviii- 632, pi. 23, no. 6. Phil. Trans. Ivii. 437,
pi. 19, fig. 11. Phil. Tians. abridg. x, 493, pi. 12, fig. 6, F Sertu-
laria pumila, Lin. Syst. 1306. Pall. Elench. 1-30. Ellis and Soland.
Zooph. 40- Berk. Syn. i. 213. Turt. Gmel. iv. 676. Wern. Mem. i.
564. Turt. Brit. Faun. 212. Stew. Elem. ii. 441, pi. 12, fig. 10, 11,
copied from Ellis. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 119. 2de edit, ii, 145.
Bosc, Vers, iii- 105. Hogg's Stockton, 32. Stark, Elem. ii. 440, pi. 8,
fig. 14. from Ellis. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 259. Lister in

Phil. Trans, an. 1834, 371, pi. 8, fig. 3. Templeton, lib. cit- 468

Sertolara pumila, Cavoh Pol- mar. 216, tav. 8, fig. 8-10 Dynamena

pumila, Lamoiir. Cor. Flex. 179. Corallina, 79. Flem. Brit. Anim. 544.

La D. naine, Blainv. Actinol. 484.

Hah. Near low-water mark common, parasitical on various Fuel,
particularly F, vesiculosus and serratus- Also on oyster shells.

The polypiferous shoots oi'iginate from a slender tubular thread which
creeps along- the surface of the fucus, and connects them all together.
The shoots are very numerous, often covering a considerable space
of the sea-weed, seldom more than half an inch in height, of a dusky
horn colour, and thickish texture, sparingly branched, filiform, flattish,
serrated with the cells, which are divided in paii's by a dissepiment or
joint. The polypes have 14 tentacula, and when the animal displays
them, it at the same time extrudes the body far beyond the rim of
the cell. The vesicles are copiously produced during the summer
months, and are irregularly distributed over the branches; they are sub-
sessile, ovate with a short tubulous rim, smooth, or sometimes wrink-
led circularly : in the centre a placentular column is at seasons obvi-
ous, and in June 1 have found them filled with innumerable pellucid
granules floating in an amniotic liquor.

" This species, and probably many others, in some particular states
of the atmosphere, gives out a phosphoric light in the dark. If a leaf
of the above Fucus (serratus,) with the Sertularia upon it, receive
a smart stroke with a stick in the dark, the whole coralline is
most beautifully illuminated, every denticle seeming to be on fire."
Steivart,

" While thus with pleasing wonder you inspect
Treasures the vulgar in their scorn reject,
See as they float along th' entangled weeds
Slowly approach, upborne on bladdery beads j

micas investigavit." Prod. Flor. Nov. HoU. p- 7 — See also Pulteney's Sketches,
V. ii. p. 107-9.

Sertularia. Z. HYDROIDA. 127

Wait till they land, and you shall then behold
The fiery sparks those tangled fronds infold,
Myriads of living points ; th' unaided eye
Can but the fire, and not the form descry." — Crabhe.

7. S. EvANSii, " has op])osite hranchesy and short denticles
placed opposite to each other ; the ovaries are lobated, and arise
from opposite branches, which proceed from the creeping adher^
ing tube." Mr John Evans.*

Sertularia Evansii, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 38. Turt. Gmel. iv, 681.
Bosc, Vers, iii, 115. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 2de edit, ii, 154. Turt. Brit.

Faun. 215. Stew. Elem. ii, 445 Dynaniena Evansii, Lamour. Cor.

Flex. 177. Corallina, 78. Flem. Brit Anim. 543 La D. d'Evan,

Blahiv. lib. cit. 484.
Hab. " Among- some sea productions brought from Yarmouth, in
Norfolk, in the year 1767/' Ellis.

" This coraUine is about tvi^o inches high, very slender, and of a
bright yellow colour. It creeps on fucus's. The ovaries differ from
all the rest of the genus : they are lobated, and the lobes are placed
opposite to one another : these appear to be full of spawn, of a deep
orange colour, which is sent forth from holes at the end of the lobes."
Ellis.

8. S. PiNNATA, cells opposite, tubular, the upper -part free and
divergent, toith an even patulous aperture ; vesicles obconical, tri-
tuberculate on the top. Pallas. f

PjvAte IX. Fig. 5, 6.

Sertularia pinnata. Pall. Elench. 136 S. fuscescens, Turt. Gmel- iv.

677. Turt. Brit. Faun. 213. Steiv. Elem. ii, 442. Lamour. Cor.

Flex. 195. Corallina, 85. Bosc, Vers, ili, 107 Dynamena pinnata,

Flem. Brit- Anim. 545. Dyn. tubiformis ? Lamour. Soland. Zooph. 12,

pi. 66, fig. 6, 7 La D. brunatre, Blainv. Aclinol. 483.

Hab. " Oceanus ad Prom. Lacertse, Cornubiae," Pallas. " On
oyster-beds, common," Fleming. Frith of Forth, plentifully, Dr
Coldstream.

Polypidom attached by tortuous tubular fibres, between two and
three inches in height, pinnated with alternate branches, of a blackish
or dusky horn colour, with a slight gloss on the surface, rather rigid

' Ellis calls him " a sea-officer in the East India Company's service." Pro-
bably the same Mr E., a surgeon, whom Petiver mentions amongst the contri-
butors to his museum.

f Peter Simon Pallas, M. D. born at Berlin, Sept. 22, 1741 : elected V. R. S.
in 1764 : died Sept. 8, 181 1. See Brewster's Edin. Encyclop. xvi, 278 ; Clarke's
Travels, i, 458, &c. Pennant's Literary Life, p. 7 ; but above all Cuvier's Me-
moir in Edin. New Phil. .Journ. iv. i). 211, &c.

128 Z. HYDROIDA. Sertularia.

when dry, straig-ht, flattish, jointed, with a pair of opposite cells on
each interspace ; branches patent, mostly undivided, jointed like the
stem. Cells tubular, the upper portion free, erecto-patent, with an
even aperture often girded with two or three faint circular wrinkles.
Pallas says that the cells incline to one side of the stem, a character
which Dr Fleming- failed to observe, and which is not perceptible in
any of the specimens sent me by Dr Coldstream. " Ab eodem la-
tere," says Pallas, " ovaria in pinnis plerisque mediis crebra, in se-
riem conferta, minuta, obverse conica, supra trituberculata, et inter
tubercula osculo instructa."

9. S. HiBERNiCA, " greater and lesser branches alternately pin-
nated ; denticles alternate, elliptical, ivith emarginate mouths ;
vesicles ovate, with a, denticulate mouth and transverse undidated

stricB."

Sertiilaria pinnata, Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist, ix, 468.

Hah. " Dredged up, with other marine productions, in the sound
of Donaghadee. Received from Mr J. Gilles, Aug. 1805," Tem-
pleton.

" The branching of this species is somewhat peculiar, each of the
primary and secondary branches springing out at an angle of 40° or
50°. That part of the stem which bears the denticles is waved so
as to bear each denticle on the projecting part ; the denticles are el-
liptic, and the mouth of each apparently a little hollowed inwards,
perhaps arising from the extremity being fractured ; the vesicles are
ovate, with 4 or 5 blunt teeth surrounding the mouth, and divided
into 6 or 8 portions by annulated undulating lines. It might be
classed among the large and strong sertularias, the principal shoot
being of the thickness of a sparrow's quill at its base, and 4 in. or
5 in. long. The branches shoot forth from opposite sides, the whole
coralline thus assuming a flat form, to the extent of 4 in. or 5 in."
Templeton^

10. S. NIGRA, cells nearly opposite, small, ovate, appressed, with

a scarcely everted aperture ; vesicles ovate or elliptical. — Pallas.

Vignette, No. 13, page 119.

Sertularianigra,Pa//. Elench.135. Turt. Gmel.iv.676. 5osc, Vers, iii. 106.

Turt. Brit. Faun. 212. Jameson in Warn. Mem. i. 365. Corallina, 86.

S. Lichenastrum, Lin. Syst. 1313. (exelus. syn.) Dynamcna

nigra, Flem. Brit. Anim. 545 La D. noire, Blainv. Actinolog. 484.

Hab. Lizard Point, Cornwall, Pallas. Coast of Aberdeenshire,
Robert Brovm. Scarborough from deep water, Mr Bean. Coast of
Northumberland at Dunstanborough Castle, Mr R. EmbJeton.

Sertularia.

Z. HYDROIDA.

129

Polypidom 3 or 4 inches high, rigid, pinnate, lanceolate, dusky or
blackish-brown, varnished. Stalk straight, compressed, jointed, with
a series of alternate cells on each side : pinnae alternate, close, bifa-
rious, several originating from each space between the joints of the
stalk, simple, narrow at their origins, filiform, often gangrened at
the apex. The cells are arranged in a close row along each margin,
and directed alternately to opposite sides (Fig. 13) ; they are small,
ovato-tu bular, short and adnate with a wide mouth having a small
tooth on the outer edge. Vesicles unilateral, superior, elliptical or
orate, sub-pedicellate, smooth.

Fie/. 15.

To this description, derived from specimens furnished by Messrs
Bean and Embleton, I append that of Pallas, for Milne-Edwards
denies the identity of his nigra with the British species (^Lcim. Anim.
s. Vert. 2de edit. ii. 155) ; for which in my opinion there are no sufiS-
cient grounds, but a comparison of the descriptions will enable every
one to decide for himself. " Radices sunt tubi intestinuliformes, lu-
tescentes, implexi, usque ad pinnarum originem assurgentes. Stit'ps
ad summum quadripollicaris, simplex, pennata, sublanceolata, testaceo
nigra et tenuior molliorque quam tubuli radic antes. Rachis stirpis
est tubulus crassitie fere calami avenacei, compressus, e planiusculis
lateribus, et ipsis denticulatis, pinnas proferens. Pinnce s. ramuli

I

130 Z. HYDROIDA. Sertularia.

teretiuscuH, depress!, lineaves, saepe longissimi, tenuiter a scapo ori-
iintur, bifariam serrulati denticulis, uti ipse quoque scapus s. rhachis.
Denticuli (sic potius in hac specie vocandi) subtubulosi, exigui, sim-
plices. Ovaria ab altero stirpis latere in ramulis crebra, secunda,
parallela, versus rami extremitatem sensim minora, membranacea,
stirpi concoloria, obovato-subquadrangula, clan§a."

11. S. TAMARiscA, cells opposite^ tubular, the upper half di-
vergent ivith a wide aperture sinuaied on the margin ; vesicles
oval, truncate, loith ttvo small points at the corners and a tuhu-
lous mouth. Ellis.

Plate X. Fig. 2, 3, 4.

Sea Tamarisk, Ellis, Corall. 4, no. 1, pL 1, fig. a, A Sertularia tama-

risca, Lin. Syst. 1307- Pall. Elencli. 129- Ellis and Soland, Zooph.
36. Berk. Syn. i. 216- Tiirt Gmel. iv. 676. Turt. Brir. Faun. 212.
Stein. Elem. ii. 441. Bosc, Vers, iii. 106. Lamoiir. Cor. Flex. 188.

Corallina, 82. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 2de edit. ii. 133 Dynamena ta- ^

marisca, Flem. Brit. Anim. 543 La D. tamarisque, Blainv. Acti-

nol. 483.
Hah. On old shells in deep water, not common. Near the island
of Dalkey, t the entrance of the harbour of Dublin, Ellis. Near
Aberdeen, Dr David Skene. Frith of Forth, Dr Coldstream. Very-
rare at Scarborough, Mr Bean.

Polypidom from four inches to " sometimes nearly a foot" in height,
rooted by a creeping vermicular fibre, stout and erect, denticulated
throughout, bifariously branched, the branches alternate, rather dis-
tant, either simple or semipennated with secondary shoots, for these
appear only to spring from the upper side of the branch, and are erect.
The cells ai'e of a thin transparent corneous texture, large, smooth,
exactly opposite, in approximated pairs, the upper half free and di-
vergent, and the margin of the aperture obsoletely tridentate. Ve-
sicles large, unilateral, scattered, obcordate or pyriform with a tubu-
lar aperture. It seems that the little spine on each side is dependant
on the age of the vesicle, and not perceptible when this is young.
When mature it is filled with orange-coloured ova — In the thin tex-
ture of the polypidom generally, and in the form of its cells, this spe-
cies resembles Sert. rosacea ; but its robust habit, and the manner
of its branching, give it at least equal claims to affinity with the fol-
lowing.

12. S. ABiETiNA, cells nearly opposite or suhaltemate, ovato-
tuhular, the mouth entire ; vesicles oval.

Plate X. Fig. 1, 1.
Abies marina, Ger. emac. 1374, fig. Sibbald. Scot. ill. lib. quart. 55

Sertulakia. Z. HYDROIDA. 131

Corallina marina abietis forma, Rati, Syn. 35, no. 12. Bast. Opusc.

Subs. 41, tab. '2, fig. 6 ; and tab. 7, fig. 1 — 3, pessimal Muscus ma-

rinus major argute denticulatis, Plunk. Phytog. tab. 48, fig. 5. Raii,

Hist. i. 78 Muscus maritimus filicis folio, Morris. Plant. Hist. iii.

650. Uib. 9, fig. 1 Sta-fir, Ellis, Corall. 4, no. 2, pi. 1, fig. b. B.

Sertularia abietina, Z(7i7i. Syst. 1307. Pall Elench. 133. Mull

Zool. Dan. prod. 265. Ellis and Soland. Zoopli. 36. Berk. Syn. i.
216. Turt. Gniel. iv. 676. Blumenb. Man. 273. Wern. Mem. i. 564.
Turt. Brit. Faun. 212. Stew. Elem. ii. 441. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii.
116, 2de edit. ii. 141. Stark, Elem. ii. 440. Risso, L'Europ. merid-
V. 311. Lamour. Cor. Flex. 189. Corallina, 81. Bosc, Vers, iii. 106.
Hogg's Stock. 31. Johnston in Trans. Newe. Soc ii. 256. Templeton

in Mag. Nat. Hist- be. 468 Dynamena abietina, Flem. Brit. Anim.

543 La Sertularie sapinette, Bluinv. Actinolog. 480, pi. 83, fig. 6.

Hah. On shells and stones in deep water, common.
" This elegant coralline is frequently found on our coast, adhering-
by its vermicular tubes to most kinds of shells : it grows very erect,
and is frequently infested with little minute shells called Serpulas." —
Ellis. Polypidom from 4 to 6 inches high, of a yellowish horn co-
lour, smooth and varnished, stout, regularly pinnate, the stem flat-
tened, slightly zigzag ; the branches rather close, linear, alternate,
bifarious, simple, or sometimes pinnated. Cells g-enerally semialter-
nate, rather small, bellied at the base with a narrow everted neck and
plain aperture, so as somewhat to resemble a Florence-flask. Vesicles
scattered, subsessile, proportionably small, smooth, ovate, with an
even shortly tubulous mouth : they are produced pi'incipally in the
winter season, when they are sometimes " in such abundance as al-
most to cover the denticles, but placed in a very regular order," El-
lis, and always on the upper edge of the branch from which they
originate.

13. S. FILICULA, cells of the form of a Florence-flask^ opposite.,
a single one in the axilla of each pinna ; vesicles pear-shaped^
smooth^ the aperture shortly tubulous, entire. Hudson. *

Plate XI. Fig-. 1, 1.
Sertularia filicula or Fern Coralline, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 57, pi. 6,
fig. c, C. Turt. Gmel. iv. 681. Bosc, Vers, iii. 114. Turt. Brit. Faun.
215. Stew. Elem. ii. 445. Jameson in Wern. Mem. i. 564. Lam.
Anim. s. Vert. ii. 119. Lamour. Cor. Flex. 188. Corallina, 82.
Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 257. Hogg's Stockton, 32 S.

• William Hudson, a London apothecary, elected F. R. S. in 1761 : the
author of the " Flora Anglica," the publication of which, in 1762, " marks the
establishment of Linnican principles of Botany in England, and their applica-
tion to practical use." — Sir J. E. Smith.

132 Z. HYDROIDA. Sertularia.

ftbietina, /3, Pall. Elench. 134 DjTiamena filicula, Flem. Brit. Anim.

544. La D. fUicule, JSlainv. Actinolog. 48-3.

Ilab. Parasitical on sea- weeds, particularly on the entangled roots
of Laminaria digitata. Coast of Yorkshire, Hudson. Scarborough,
Ellis. Frequent about Seaton, Hartlepool, Whitburn, and other
places on the coast of Durham, Hogg. Cullercoats, Northumber-
land, ^bs. ^/rfer. Diinstanhorongh, H. Embleton. Common on the
shores of N. Durham and Berwickshire, Go J. Frith of Forth,
Ja77ieson.

Polypidom arising from a creeping fibre, 1 to 4 inches in
height, spreading bifariously, irregularly branched, slender and flex-
ible, of a straw-yellow or brownish colour, homologous throughout;
the rachis zig-zag, or " bent to and fro into alternate angles," close-
ly pinnated, the pinnae shooting from every bend alternately on op-
posite sides, linear, patent, simple or composite. Cells closely set,
minute, giving a serrulated appearance to the ramifications of the
polypidom, shaped something like a Florence-flask, smooth, the aper-
ture oblique, entire. The vesicles are rarely produced, nor have I
seen a specimen with them : they are represented by Ellis as of a
pear shape with a short tulnilous aperture.

This, like its ally the S. abietina, is often infested with Serpulae,
but it is a much more delicate species, and, notwithstanding the si-
milarity of their specific characters, perfectly distinct. " The singu-
larity of its waved stem, with its erect single denticle at the insertion
of the branches, together with the single pair of denticles on each
part of the stem, that form the angles, make it a very distinct spe-
cies from any of this genus." Ellis.

14. S. OPERCULATA, cells Opposite, inversely conical, the aper-
ture patulous, obliquely truncate, pointed on the outer edge, with
two small lateral teeth ; vesicles obovate. Mr Newton.

Plate XL Fig. 2, 2.
Muscus marinus denticulatiis, procumbens, caule tenuissimo, denticulis bi-
jugis, Rail, Hist. i. 79. Morrison, Plant. Hist. Oxon. iii. 650, tab. 9,

fig. 3. Pluhenet, Phytogr. tab. 47, fig. 11 Corallina muscosa denti-

culata procumbens, Raii, Syn. 36, No. 18 Sea- Hair, Ellis, Corall. 8,

No. 6, tab. 3, fig. h- B. Sertularia operculata, Lin. Syst. 1307- El-
lis and Soland. Zooph. 39. Berk. Syn. i. 216. Turt. Gmel. iv. 676.
Jarneson'irv Wern. Mem. i. 564. Turt.Wit. Faun. 212. Steiv. Elem.
u. 441. Base, Vers, iu. 106. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. u. 118. Hogg's
Stockton, 32. Johnston in Trans. Newc. See. fi. 258, plate 11, fig. 2.

Templeton, ut supra cit, 468. S. usneoides. Pall. Elench. 132

Dynamena operculata, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 176. Corall. 78. Flem. Brit.
Anim. 544 — La Dynamene operculte, Blainv. Actinolog. 483, pi. 83,
fig- 5.

Sertularia. Z. HYDROIDA. 133

Hab. Near low- water mark on Fuci. particularly on the stalks of
Laminaria digitata. Common on all parts of the British coast.

Grows in tufts from 2 to 4 inches high. The shoots are slender
and neat, filiform, tlexuose or widely zig-zag, always erect, alternate-
ly hranched, the branches erect, and, like the first shoot, serrulated
with the polype- cells which are exactly opposite, and less everted than
is usual to the genus. The outer angle of the aperture of the cell is
produced into an acute point, and there is a sharp tooth on each side,
which is omitted in the otherwise admirable figure of Ellis, although
it could not escape his lyncean eye. * The vesicles are irregularly
scattered on the branches, large, smooth, egg-shaped, the top often
covered with a sort of rounded operculum : they are produced abun-
dantly in the winter season and in spring, when indeed, I think, the
ovaries appear on the greater number of this order of corallines. It
was from the great resemblance of these vesicular ovaries to the cap-
sules of mosses, that the early botanists drew an additional argument
in behalf of the vegetability of the corallines themselves ;f and a Dar-
winian might be, perhaps, forgiven were he even now to feign how
the Nereides stole them from the mossy herbelets of Flora's winter
and vernal shews, to deck and gem the arbuscular garnitures of their
own coral caves ! J

The shoots are usually so little waved that Pallas' term " subflex-
uosi" is very appropriate, but in the collection of Dr Coldstream there

* " Zoophytorum lynceus Ellisius," Lin. Syst. 1071.

f " These vesicles appearing at a certain season of the year, according to the
different species of corallines, and then falling off, like the blossoms or seeds of
plants, has made some curious persons, who have not had an opportunity of see-
ing the animals alive in the vesicles, conclude them to be the seed-vessels of
plants ; and into this mistake I was led myself, in the account laid before the
Royal Society in 1752. In which account I had taken some pains to point out
the great similitude between the vesicles, and denticulated appearance of some
of these corallines ; and the tooth-shaped leaves and seed-vessels of some spe-
cies of land-mosses, particularly of the Hypnum and Bryum." — Ellis, CoralL In-
trod. be.

\ " Nymphs ! you adorn, in glossy volutes roll'd,

" The gaudy conch with azure, green, and gold.

*«*■♦••*

" You chase the warrior shark, and cumbrous whale,

" And guard the mermaid in her briny vale j

" Feed the live petals of her insect-flowers,

" Her shell-wrack gardens, and her sea-fan bowers ;

" With ores and gems adorn her coral cell,

" And drop a pearl in every gaping shell."

Botanic Garden, Canto iii.

134 Z. HYDROIDA. Sertularia.

is a larg-e specimen, from the Frith of Forth, in which they are re-
markably zig-zag or kneed, so as to give it a pecuhar character and
appearance. In the same collection are specimens from the Cape of
Good Hope, which differ in no respect from those of our shores.

15. S. AUGE'STE A, polT/pidojn cauliferous ; cells nearly oppo-
site or suhalternate, urceolate, acutely pointed^ the upper half di-
varicated ; vesicles oval. Merret.

Plate XII. and Plate XI. Fig. 3, 3.
Corallina miiscosa, alterna vice denticulata, ramulis in creberrima capilla-

menta sparsis, Rail, Syn. i. 36, No. 17. Muscus maiinus denticulatus

minor ramulis in creberrima eapillamenta sparsis, Pluknet, Phytog. tab.

48, fig. 3 Muscus marinus minor denticulis alternis, Morris. Hist.

Plant. Oxon. iii. 630, tab. 9, fig. 4 Squirrel's-tail, Ellis, Corall. 6,

No. 4, pi. 2, fig. c, C. Sertidaria cupressina, /3, Lin. Syst. 1308

S. argentea, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 38. Tiirt. Gmel. iv. 677. Wern.
Mem. i. 564. Berk. Syn. i. '216. Tiirt. Brit. Faun. 213. Stew. Elem.
ii. 442. Bosc, Vers, iii. 108- Lam. Anim. s. Vert ii. 117. Lamonr.
Cor. Flex. 192, Corall. 84. Hogg's Stockton, 32. Templeton in lib.

cit. 468. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 258, pi. xi. fig. 4 La

S. argentee, Blainv. Actinol. 480 Dynamena argentea, Flem. Brit.

Anim. 544.
Hab. In deep water. On oysters and other large bivalved shells,
as also on the stalk of Laminaria digitata, common.

Polypidom from 6 to 18 inches high, caulifei"ous, the stem percur-
rent, fihform, waved or straight, smooth, of a dark brown colour, di-
vided at rather wide but regular intervals by an oblique joint, clothed
with short panicled dichotomous branches which spread out on every
side, and being all of the same size or nearly so, (excepting at the
bottom where they are less branched and smaller, and at the top where
they also frequently become gradually shortened,) the whole coralline
assumes somewhat of the shape of a squirrel's tail, and has given ori-
gin to its English name. Two branches usually arise from each in-
ternode of the stem, and they come off in such a manner that four
or five of them complete a whorl. The polype-cells on the stem are
alternate, appressed, and appear to be less than those on the branches,
which are placed in two I'ows with their orifices inclined to one side ;
they are bellied like a Florence-flask with a narrow divaricated neck
terminated with a small oblique aperture : on some of the branchlets
every pair is separated by a joint or stricture, while on others several
pairs occur in succession without the interference of such a structure.
Vesicles scattered, oval, smooth, attenuated at the base.

In young specimens of an inch or two in height the polypidom is
simply pinnate, and as it rises the branches gradually divide into more

Sertularia. Z. HYDROIDA. 135

numerous seg-ments. In Plate XI. Fig. 3, I have given a fig-ure of
such a specimen selected from many others on account of its greater
diverg-ence from the usual character of the species. When, on the
contrary, the polypidom attains a foot or more in height, the lower
half of the stem loses its branches and cells, and becomes entirely
naked. I think it likely that such a specimen, of the unusual size of
3 feet, constitutes the Sertulm'ia uber of Sir J. G. Dalyell in Edin.
New Phil. Journ. xvii. 412.

16. S. CUPRESSINA, polypidom cauliferous ; cells nearly op-
posite, tubulous, adnate, the aperture scarcely contracted, bilabiate,
uiith two minute spinous teeth ; vesicles nearly oval. — Ellis.

Plate XIII.

Sea- Cypress, ^ffis, Corall. 7, No 3, pi. 3, fig. a, A. Sertularia cupres-

sina, Lin. Syst. 1308. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 38. Berk. Syn. i.
216. Turt. Ginel. iv. 677. Wern. Mem. i. 564. Turt. Brit. Faun.
213. Stew. Elem. ii. 442 Bosc, Vers, iii. 108. Lam. Anim. s. Vert,
ii. 118. Lamour. Cor. Flex. 192. Corall. 84. Hogg's Stock. 32. Tem-
pleton in loc. cit. 468. Stark, Elem. ii. 440, pi. 8, fig. 12. Risso,

L'Europ. merid. v. 311 La S. cypres, Blainv. Actinol. 480 Dy-

namena cupressina, Flem. Brit. Anim. 543.

Hab " The Sea-cypress is chiefly found in deep water on the coast
of Yorkshire, Scotland, and the north of Ireland," Ellis. Scarbo-
rough, Mr Bean. Frith of Forth, Jameson. Cork Bay, Mr J. V.
Thompson. On the shore of iNIagilligan Strand, County Derry,
TempJeton.

This is in general a larger and stouter species than the preceding,
with longer branches more decidedly fan-shaped, the pinnae being
closer and more parallel to one another. The cells are in two rows,
nearly opposite, smooth and pellucid, adnate, with the margin of the
comparatively wide aperture sinuated so as to form two or some-
times three prominent denticles. The branches in some specimens
are gTacefully arched, bending as it were under the load of pregnant
ovaries which they carry, and which are arranged in close-set rows
along the upper side of the pinnae. They are of an oval shape,
smooth, attenuated at the base, with sometimes a sharp spine at each
corner of the apex, but these are oftener absent.

This and the preceding have a distinct stem, in which they differ
from all the other native species, which are pre-eminently frondose
or homologous, the offsets and pinnae being in all respects the same
as the primary shoot. Pallas maintains that they constitute but one

species, his S. cupressina, Elench. 141 the charactei's assigned to

them respectively being far from specilical, since he found, on one

136 Z. HYDROIDA. Sertularia.

and the same specimen, that the young vesicles had long- spines at
their tops, the more mature shorter ones, and on full-grown vesicles
they were nearly or altogether obsolete ; while bluntly tubulous and
acutely pointed cells occurred promiscuously, on the same stalk, in
specimens of every size and exterior habit. Linnaeus, apparently
swayed by these assertions, followed Pallas ; but Ellis, in a later
work, adhered to his first opinion, for, " besides the difference of their
denticles (cells) and ovaries," which he evidently regarded as per-
manent, they have, he says, " quite a different habit and manner of
growing." All subsequent writers have assented to Ellis's views,
most of them, at the same time, expressing- a suspicion of their cor-
rectness, and my own limited observations have possessel me with
the same dubiety. Specimens can be readily produced which, from
habit and the figure of their cells, will be at once pronounced the re-
presentatives of distinct species, but a larger examination may lead to
another conclusion. I have seen no specimens of S. cupressina
with the cells of S. argentea, * but I have seen several which, from
their habit, I would refer to the latter, with the cells and vesicles of
the former. Such a specimen is figured in Plate XII. I can also state
that on the same specimen I have observed cells that might be con-
sidered as belonging to either species ; and with these facts I should,
perhaps, have amalgamated the synonymes, had I not been aware
that some of our best naturalists, for example Bean and J. V. Thomp-
son, are opposed to the junction. " Besides," to adopt the words of
Professor Lindley in a somewhat similar discussion, " our daily ex-
perience shows us that excessive analysis is far preferable to excessive
synthesis, especially for the purposes of students ; the former leads
to no other inconvenience, than that of increasing the degree of in-
vestigation which species must receive to be understood ; the latter
has a constant tendency to render investigation superficial, and cha-
racters confused," Syn. of the British Flora, Pref. p. ix.

Professor Jameson has inserted Sertularia cupressoides
among those species found in the Frith of Forth, Wern, Mem. i.
564 ; and in the work entitled " Corallina," p. 83, the elegant Aus-
ti'alasian S. elongata and S. pectinata are said to be found on

the English coast. I believe there is some error in all these in-
stances.

I have repeatedly observed on oyster-shells, and among the roots

• It deserves to be remarked, in connection with this point, that the charac-
ters of S. argentea given by Lamarck are really those of S. cupressina ; and
this has ascribed to it the diagnostics of S. argentea.

TiiuiARiA. Z. HYDIIOIDA. 137

of corallines, a sessile vesicular body filled with milk-white granules,
resembling- very exactly the oviferous vesicle of a Sertularia, but of
what species I am unable to say, if indeed it belongs to any. It is
rooted, subsessile, roundish, slightly flattened on the sides, smooth,
with a short tubulous even aperture. Fig. 10, page 92. It has no at-
tachment to any organized body. Can it be the nidus of some mi-
nute Fusus or Purpura ?

7. Thuiaria, * Fleminor.
Character. Pulypidom plant-like, rooted hy a tubular Jihre,
erect, dichotomously branched or pinnated ; the cells sessile, bise-
rial, adnate to the racliis or " imbedded in the substance of the
stem and branches ;" vesicles scattered. — Polypes hydraform.

1. Th. Thuia, cells ovato-elliptical, rather acute; vesicles
pear-shaped. Sir Robert Sibbald.f

Plate XIV. and XV. Fig, 1, 2.

Plaiita marina equiseti facie, Sib- Scot. ill. ii. lib. iv. 55, tab- 12, fig. 1

Fucus equiseti facie, Ibid- lib. i. 56. Rail, Syn. 50, no. 47 — ^ — Bottle-
brush Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 10, no. 9, pi. 5, fig. b. B Sertularia

thuja, Z(«. Syst. 1308. Pall. Elench. 140. Ellis and Soland. Zooph.
41. Berk. Syn. i. 217. Turt. Gmel. iv. 678. Wern. Mem. i. 564.
Turt. Brit. Faun. 213. Bosc, Vers, iii. 109. Slew. Elem. ii. 442. La-
moitr. Cor. Flex. 193. Corall. 84. Hogg's Stock. 32. Risso L'Europ.

Mend, v, 311 Cellaria thuia, Lam- Anim. s. Vert ii. 339. Stark,

Elem. ii. 439 Thuiaria thuia, Flem. Brit. Anim. 545. Johnston in

Trans. Newc See. ii. 261 — La Biseriare thuia, Blainv. Actinol. 482, pi.
81, fig. 3.

Hab. On shells from deep water. " They are found on the coast

Formed from ^u'ttt — a cedar. There is a Thuarea in Botany, so near to
the zoophytical genus in sound as to render this name objectionable. The Thu-
area is formed from the name of the botanist A. du Petit-Thouars.

■f There is a very interesting life of Sir Robert, written by himself, in the
Analecta Scotica, v. i. p. 126 et seq. It is printed in a separate form with the
title " The Autobiography of Sir Robert Sibbald, Knt. M. D. ; to which is pre-
fixed a short account of his MSS." 8vo, published by Thomas Stevenson, Edin.
1833. The pamphlet forms the basis of his Life prefixed to the 20th vol. of
the " Naturalist's Library," with which a portrait is also given. Sir Robert was
born 15th April 1641 ; graduated in 1662 ; was knighted in 1682 ; and died
probably in 1 722, for the precise date has not been ascertained. See Pulteney's
Sketches of the Progress of Botany, v. ii. p. 4-8. The following Elogium is
from the Second Series of the ATialecta Scotica, p. 153, Edin. 1837.

" Illustrata simul decorat, pariterque Sibaldum

" Scotia, scriptori lumine grata suo."

138 Z. HYDROIDA. Thuiaua.

of Scotland, and in the noi'tb of England, ])articularly about Scar-
borough, where the fishermen have given them the name of Bottle-
brushes," Ellis. " Very frequently found on the coast of Durham,"
J. Hogg. Common on N. Durham and Berwickshire, G. J. Leith
shore, Jameson.

This remarkable coralline is sometimes a foot in height, generally
less, affixed by a tubular fibre, which is sometimes agglutinated to
others from other shoots, so as to form a lichen-like ci'ust concentri-
cally wrinkled. Stem percurrent, erect, filiform, rigid, zig-zag,
knotted, naked underneath, bearing on the upper part a cylindrical
tuft of dichotomous short equal branches, coming off alternately and
so disposed that four complete a whorl. The knots on the lower
part are the remains of former branches which seem to drop off as
the portion of the stem immediately beneath them successively loses
its vitality. The stem has no cells, and neither it nor the branches
are jointed. Cells close-pressed, arranged in two rows, sub-alternate,
smooth, tapered from the base to a contracted orifice. Vesicles sub-
pedicellate, pear-shaped, smooth, placed in clusters or solitary on the
upper side and towards the base of the branches ; they are produced
mostly in the winter season, and are filled with a milk-white grumous
fluid previous to the discharge of the ova.

Young specimens of this polypidom are simply pinnate, but these
may be always distinguished from the following by the greater inter-
vals between the origin of the pinnae, and by the shape of the cells.
The Fig. 1,2 of Plate XV. represents a specimen of this kind, which has
been the more readily introduced, since it exhibits the living polypes
in an active state, and proves that the coralline has no relationship
to Cellaria. — The Sertularia thuia of Fabricius in his Fauna Groen-
landica, p. 444, I am inclined to refer to Sert. pumila.

2. Th. articulata, cells ovate, obtuse or truncate ; ovarian
vesicles elliptical. Ellis.

Plate XV. Fig. 3, 4.

Sea-Spleenwort or Polypody, £ffis, C'orall. 11, no. 10, pi. 6, fig. a, A

Sertularia articulata, Pall. Elench. 137 S. Lonchitis, jBffis and A'o-

land. Zooph. 42 S. Liclienastrum, J5erA. Syn. i. 219. Turt. Gmel.

iv. 683. Turt. Brit. Faun. 216. Stew. Elem. ii. 447. Bosc, Vers,iii.

119. Cellaria Lonchitis, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 1.39. Thuiaria

articulata, Flem. Brit. Anim. 545 La B. articulee, Blainv. Actinol.

482.
Hab. On shells and stones in deep water, very rare. In the har-
bour of Dublin, Ellis. At Scarborough, 3Ir Bean.

Polypidom about 4 inches high, pinnate, lanceolate, corneous, sub-

3

Antennularia. Z. HYDliOlDA. 139

pellucid, the stem nearly equal in diameter throughout, compressed
upwards, finely wrinkled when dry, divided by joints not regularly
equidistant, naked on the lower halt, pinnated above and celliferous:
pinnae simple, patent, rather close-set, not exactly opposite nor yet
properly alternate. Cells in a single series along each side, semial-
ternate, ovato-tubular, short with a round plain aperture. Vesicles
issuing from both sides of the pinnae, most numerously from the up-
per, subpedicellate, elliptical, smooth, the oi'ifice contracted and even.
, Through the liberality of Mr Bean, I am enabled to give a figure
— the most perfect one which has been yet published — of this rare
species. Its synonymes are somewhat confused. Pallas aflSrms, cor-
rectly in my opinion, that the Sea-Spleenwort of Ellis is not the Ser-
tularia Lichenastrum of Linnaeus as generally asserted, and he has
described a different species considered by him as identical with the
Linnsean. The figure of Ellis is quoted by Pallas as an admirable re-
presentation of his own S. articulata, but in the description of this
the branches or pinnae are said to be opposite, whereas in Ellis's fi-
gure, and in our own, although less decidedly, they are regularly al-
ternate. Elhs notices under his S. Lonchitis a foreign variety with op-
posite cells and pinnae, having " the joints both on the stem and branch-
es much closer together ;" and it will probably be found that this con-
stitutes a distinct species, hitherto confounded with others nearly
allied.

8. Antennularia,* Lamarck.
Character. Polypidom ■plant-like^ hoimy, simple or hranch-
ed irregularly, the shoots fistular, jointed, clothed with hair-like
verticillate hranchlets : cells small, sessile, campanulate, unilate-
ral : vesicles scattei'ed, unilateral — Polypes hydraform.

1. A. ANTENNiNA. — Mrs Ward, -f-

Plate XVI.

Lobster's -boin coralline or Sea-beard, Ellis, Corall. 15, no. 14, pi. 9, fig.
a, b, A. B. a Phil. Trans, xlviii. G30, tab. 22, no. 3. Phil. Trans.

abridg. x. 491, pi. 12, fig. 3, C. Sertularia antennina, Lin. Syst.

1310. Pall. Elench. 146. Ellis and Solaiid. Zooph. 45. Berk. Syn. i.
217. Tint. Gmel. iv. 679. Wern. Mem. i. 564. Turt. Brit. Faun.

* From Antennula, diminutive oi antenna, a term applied to the feelers of in-
sects.

•)• " Found on the rocks by Mrs Ward, an ingenious gentlewoman of Gisburgh
in Cleveland, Yorkshire, and by her named Sea-beard ; I suppose from its grow-
ing in a thick tuft; Mr Lawson." — Raij.

140 Z. HYDROIDA. Plumularia.

214. Stew. FAem. u. 443. i?osc, Vers, iii. 1 1 1 . Antennularia anten-

iiina, Flem. Brit. Anim. 546. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 260.
Var. 1. The stem simple — Corallina astaci corniculorum semula, Raii, Syn.

i. 34, no. 10. Corallina affinis, nonramosa, Pluhen. Almag. Bot. 119.

Muscus marinus s. coralloid. non ramosus, erectus, Pluhen. Phytog.

tab. 48, fig. 6 Sertularia antennina, Hogg's Stock. 33 Nemer-

tesia antennina, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 163, Corall. 71 Antennularia, in-

divisa, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 123. 2de edit. ii. 156. Templeton in Mag.

Nat Hist. ix. 468 L'Antennulaire simple, Blainv. Actinolog. 486,

pi. 83, fig. 3.
Var. 2. The stem branched — Corallina minima, Ger. Herb. emac. 1572, no.
4, quoad fig C. ramosa cirris obsita, Raii, Syn. 35, no. 11 Ser-
tularia seticornis, Hogg's Stock. 33 Nemertesia ramosa, Lamour.

Cor. Flex. 164. Corall. 71 Antennularia ramosa. Lam. Anim. s.

Vert. ii. 123. 2de edit. ii. 156- Stark, Elem. ii. 440. Templeton in ]ib.

cit. 468 L'A. rameuse, Blainv. Actinolog. 486.

Hab. On shells and rocks in deep water, frequent. " In littore
Dubrensi colleg-it D. Dare Pharmacopseus Londinensis," Bai/. Sus-
sex coast, Ellis. From deep water in the Frith of Forth, Jameson.
Common on the coasts of Durham, Northumberland, and Berwick-
shire, G. J. Cork harbour, J. V- Thompson. (I.) " On the
shore of Dublin Bay ; (2.) Found on the shore of Belfast Lough,"
Temple toti.

Stems clustered, rooted by numerous implexed tubular fibres, erect,
straight, attaining a height of 8 inches and upwards, cylindrical, of a
clear yellowish-horn colour, irregularly branched or undivided, and
in the latter instances resembling, when dried, the Lobster's antenna,
to which they have been appropriately compared. The branches are
exactly like the primary shoot, and are equally beset with hair-like
branchlets arranged in numerous whorls. These are often broken
short in specimens cast on shore after storms, but in recent ones dredg-
ed from their native sites they are as long as represented in our fi-
gures. They carry the polype cells, which are distant, small and cam-
panulate with entire rims, and divided from each other by a joint.
The ovarian vesicles are situated in the axils of the whorls, subpedi-
cellate, ovate, smooth, with a subterminal aperture.

I can detect no essential difference between the two varieties, and
I have had, through the kindness of friends, an opportunity of exa-
mining specimens from various parts of the coast.

9. Plumularia ;* Lamarck.
Character. Polypidum plant-like^ rooted, simple or branch-

» Formed from Plumula, the dimin. of Pluma, a feather — I have, in common
with most French authors, adopted the generic names of Lamarck in preference

Pi.uMULAuiA. Z. HYDROIDA. -141

ed, the shoots and offsets plnmous : cells small, sessile, unilateral,
usually seated in the axilla of a horny spine : vesicles scattered,
unilateral. — Polypes hydrajvrm.

* Stem a single tube.
1. P. FALCATA, stein leaved, branched ; branches alternately
pennated ; cells close-ranked, shortly tubulous with a plain rim ;
vesicles oblong- oval. Merret. *

Plate XVll. Fig I, 2.
Corallina mnscosa pennata, ramulis et capillamentis falcatis, Raii, Syn. i.

36, No. 16 Muscus pennatus, ramulis et capillamentis falcatis,

Pluken. Phytog. tab- 47, fig. 12 Muscus maritimus pennatus ramu-
lis et capillamentis falcatis, Morris. Plant, hist. Ox. iii. 650, tab. 9, fig.

2 Sickle Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 12, No. 11, pi. 7, fig. a, A. and

pi. 38, fig. 6 Sertularia fdlcata, Li?i. Syst. 1309. Pall. Elench. 144.

Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 42- Berh. Syn. i. 217. Turt. Gmel. iv. 679.
Blumenb. Man. 278. Wern. Mem. i. 564. Tart. Brit. Faun. 213. Stew.

Elem. ii. 443. Bosc, Vers, iii. 110. Hogg's Stock. 32 Aglaophenia

falcata, ZamoM/-. Cor. Flex. 174. Corall. 77 Plumulariafalcata, Zam.

Anim. s. Vert. ii. 125. 2de edit. ii. 160. Grant m Edin. New Phil.
Journ. i. 155. Flem. Brit. Anim. 546. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc.

to those of Lamouroux, although aware that the claim of priority is generally
allowed to the latter ; but let us hear what Milne-Edwards says — " Pendant
que Lamarck preparait le grand ouvragedont le second volume est consacreaux
Polypes, Lamouroux s'oecupait du meme sujet, et fit paraitre a Caen un traite
special sur les Polypiers coralligenes flexibles. D'apres la date de la presenta-
tion de son manuscrit a I'Institut, on pourrait meme lui attribuer I'anteriorite sur
Lamarck, et penser que ce dernier savant, nomme par I'Academie des Sciences
commissaire pour I'examen du memoire de Lamouroux, avait profite de cette
circonstance pour s'approprier les resultats obtenus par ce zoologiste. Un au-
teur recent semble porte a croire que les choses se sont passees de la sorte ;
mais les traditions du museum prouvent qu'il n'en est rien, et je me plais a ren-
dre ici toute justice a la conduite de Lamarck. En efFet, M. Valenciennes, qui
etait alors attache a Lamarck en qualite d'aide-naturaliste, m'a assure que de-
puis long-temps toutes les divisions generiques etablies par ce professeur dans la
classe des Polypiers se trouvaient indiquees dans la collection publique de mu-
seum, et que pour faciliter le travail de Lamouroux sur le meme sujet, Lamarck
avait mis genereusement a sa disposition toutes les richesses de cet etablissement
deja denominees et classees par ses soins." — Ann. des Sc Nat Part. ZooL Tom.
vi. second ser. p. 12-

* For an account of Dr Christopher Merret see Pulteney's Sketches, v. i. p-
290, &c J and Thomson's Hist, of the Roy. Soc. p. 22. He was born in 1614 ;
was one of the original members of the Royal Society; and died in 1695. Ray's
character of him in 1688 is, — " annis et scientia gravis, de Professione sua
deque Repub. Botanica optime meriti." Hist. Plant, ii. prsf. Contrast this
with the character in Sir J. E. Smith's Eng. Flora, i. pref. vii-viii.

142 Z. HYDROIDA. Plumularia.

ii. 259. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 466. Risso, L'Europ. merid.

V. 31.3 I.a P. en faux, Blainv. Actinolog. 477.

Hah. On shells and rocks near low water-mark and in deep water.
A common and very eleg-ant species, generally from 4 to 6 inches in
height, rising- in wide spiral turns, and sending out from its filiform
percurrent stem, at regulated intervals, alternate spreading plumous
branches which are placed one above the other on the outer side.
Pinnae alternate, bifarious. In young speciniens the branches are
two- ranked and alternate, and I have seen this character remain in one
specimen of considerable size. There are no cells on the spiral
stem, but they occur on the branches as well as on the pinnae, and
are arranged in two rows pointing alternately to opposite sides. There
is a fine figure of the coralline in the centre of the curious frontis-
piece to Ellis's Essay ; and the magnified figure in tab. 38 is a more
correct representation of the cells than that given in tab. 7, which
has been drawn from a dried specimen. The ovarian vesicles are of
uncertain occurrence, and I have seldom seen them ; they are scattered
irregularly on the branches, stalked, ovate or pear-shaped, with a short
tubulous aperture, and occasionally wrinkled longitudinally when dry*
" This species is very common in the deeper parts of the Frith of
Forth ; its vesicles are very numerous, and its ova are in full matu-
rity at the beginning of May. The ova are large, of a light-brown
colour, semi-opaque, nearly spherical, composed of minute transpa-
rent granules, ciliated on the surface and distinctly irritable. There
are only two ova in each vesicle ; so that they do not require any
external capsules, like those of the Campanularia, to allow them suf-
ficient space to come to maturity. On placing an entire vesicle?
with its two ova, under the microscope, we perceive through the
transparent sides, the cilise vibrating on the surface of the contained
ova, and the currents produced in the fluid within by their motion.
When we open the vesicles with two needles, in a drop of sea-water,
the ova glide to and fro through the water, at first slowly, but after-
wards more quickly, and their cilise propel them with the same part
always forward. They are highly irritable, and frequently contract
their bodies so as to exhibit those singular changes of form spoken off
by Cavolini. These contractions are particularly observed when they
come in contact with a hair, a filament of conferva, a grain of sand, or
any minute object ; and they are hkewise frequent and remarkable at
the time when the ovum is busied in attaching its body permanent-
ly to the surface of the glass. After they have fixed, they become
flat and circular, and the more opake parts of the ova assume a radiat-
ed appearance ; so that they now appear, even to the naked eye, like

Plumularia. Z. HYDROIDA, 143

so many minute grey coloured stars, having the interstices between
the rays filled with a colourless transparent matter, which seems to
harden into horn. The grey matter swells in the centre, where the
rays meet, aud rises perpendicularly upwards surrounded by the trans-
parent horny matter, so as to form the trunk of the future zoophyte.
The rays first formed are obviously the fleshy central substance of the
roots, and the portion of that substance which grows perpendicularly up-
wards, forms the fleshy central pai'tof the stem. As early as I could
observe the stem, it was open at the top ; and, when it bifurcated to
form two branches, both were open at their extremities, but the fleshy
central matter had nowhere developed itself as yet into the form of a
polypus. Polypi, therefore, are not the first formed parts of this
zoophyte, but are organs which appear long after the formation of the
root and stem, as the leaves and flowers of a plant." Professor Grant.

2. P. CRiSTATA, shoots simple, plumoiis, the pinna alternate ;
cells in a close roio, cup-shaped ivitii a toothed margin and a short
lateral spine ; vesicles gibbous, girt with crested ribs. Ellis.
Plate XIX. Fig. 1—3, and Plate XX. Fig. 1.

The Podded Coralline, Ellis, Coiall. 13, no. 12, pi. 7. fig. b. B Ser-

tularia pluma, Lin. Syst. 1.309. Pall. Elench. 149. Ellis and Soland.
Zooph. 43. Berk. Syn. i. 217- Tiirt. Gmel. iv. G79. Turt. Brit. Faun.
214. Stew. Elem. ii. 443. Bosc, Vers, iii. Ill, pi. 29, fig. 1, pe.ssima.

Lister in Phil. Trans, au. 1834, 369, pi. 8, fig. 2 Aglaophenia pluma,

Lamour. Cor. Flex. 170- Corall. 75 Plumularia eristata, Lam. Anim.

s. vert. ii. 125. 2de edit. ii. 161. Stark, Elem. ii. 440. Templeton'm Mag.

Nat. Hist. ix. 467. Risso, L'Europ. merid. v. 313 PI. pluma, Flem.

Brit. Anim. 546 La Plumulaire plume, Blainv. Actinol. 477

Sertolaria pluma, CavoL Pol. mar. 210, tav. 8, fig. 5 — 7.

Hah. On Fuci, particularly Fucus siliquosus, and sometimes " on
muscles and other shells." Common on the southern coasts of Eng-
land. Picked up on the shox'e at Stevenston, Ayrshire, Rev. D.
Landsborough. On the coast of Ireland near Dublin, Ellis. On
the shore of Belfast Lough, &c. 3Ir TempJeton.

Attached to sea-weeds by a flexuous horny anastomosing tubular
fibre, which throws up, at intervals, plumous shoots from one to one
and a half inch high : these are very elegant and erect when in the
sea, but when dry become curved in a falcate manner with all their
pinules, which are also frequently laid to one side. " Siccatione
surculi sursum seu contrario modo qiiam fuerant, recurvantur, pin-
nulseque curvatae ad invicem accedunt." Pallas. The polypidom is
of a honey-yellow colour with a dark brown rachis, which is smooth,
and divided by numerous oblique septa or joints, there being one be-

144 Z. HYDROIDA. Plumularia.

tween every pair of pinnae. Pinnae alternate, close, parallel, celluli-
ferous on the upper side ; the cells separated by a joint and set in a
sort of indentation in the stalk. They have been aptly compared by
Ellis to the flower of the lily of the valley, being- of a campanulate
form with the rim cut into eight equal teeth, while in front there is
a stronger spinous process which does not project beyond the cell.
The ovarian vesicles are large and remarkably curious : they are pro-
duced both from the main stalk and pinnae, are shortly pedicellate,
and resemble a swollen pod girded round with from 5 to 9 cristated
ribs or bands proceeding from a dorsal tube, and rising- into short
spines on the anterior margin. When recent " they are translucent,
and six or seven dark oval masses can be seen within each. These
seemed to be ova. The vesicle being torn up, and the ova allowed
to escape, they were seen to be in form irregularly oval, but contain-
ing an opake elongated body in their centre. (Fig. 6, p. 48.) The form
of this central body varied in different ova, but it was generally some-
what hammer-shaped. Neither the general mass of the ovum, nor
this central body were seen to move." Dr Coldstream^ June 10,
1833. — Polypes " minute, delicate ; tentacula 10, annulated ; mouth
infundibuliform." Dr Coldstream.

" Each plume," says Mr Lister in reference to a specimen of this
species, " might comprise from 400 to 500 polypi ;" and a specimen,
of no unusual size, before me has twelve plumes, with certainly not
fewer cells on each than the larger number mentioned, thus giving
6000 polypes as the tenantry of a single polypidom ! Now many
such specimens, all united too by a common fibre, and all the off-
shoots of one common parent, are often located on one sea-weed, the
site then of a population which nor London nor Pekin can rival !
But PI. cristata is a small species, and there are single specimens of PI.
falcata, or Sertularia argentea, of which the family may consist of
80,000 or 100,000 individuals. It is such calculations, always un-
der-rated, that illusti'ate the " magnalities of Nature," and take us
by surprise, leaving us in wonderment at what may be the great ob-
jects of this her exuberant production of these " insect-milhons
peopling every way." But

" So He ordain'd, whose way is in the sea,

His path amidst great waters, and his steps

Unknown ; — whose judgments are a mighty deep,

Where plummet of Archangel's intellect

Could never yet find soundings, but from age

To age let down, drawn up, then thrown again,

With lengthened line and added weight, still fails ;

And still the ciy in Heaven is ' O the depth' !" — Montgomenj.

Plumularia. Z. HYDHOIDA. 145

I have a specimen of PI. cristata gathered in Cork Bay, and present-
ed to me by J. V. Thompson, Esq., which is nearly 3 inches in height,
spreading laterally, the rachis divided in a regular dichotoraous man-
ner, and rough or muricated on one side, wherever it is naked of
pinnae. The vesicles have from 7 to 9 crested ribs with a spinous
dorsal keel. The roughness of the I'achis is produced by the remains
of the deciduous pinnae. I give a figure of this specimen, (Plate XX.
Fig. ],) as an additional proof that little reliance can be placed on ex-
ternal habit as a character in determining the species of this order.

3. P. PENNATULA, plumous, the pimia opposite ; cells in a
close roio, cup -like icith an unequally crenated margin, support-
ed on the under side hy a lengthened incurved spinous process.
Montagu.

Plate XVIII. Fig. 1, 2.

Sertularia perinatula, Ellis and Suland. Zooph. 56, tab. 7, fig- 1, 2- Bosc,

Vers, iii. 114. Fleming m Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 83 Aglaophenia

pennatula, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 168. CoraU. 74 Plumiilaria penna.

tula, Lam. Anini. s. Vert ii. 128. 2de edit. ii. 165. Flem. Brit.

Anim. 546 La P. pennatule, Blainv. Actinolog. 478.

Hub. Coast of Devonshire, rare, Mr Montagu.
" This coralline is as remarkable for the elegance of its form, as its
likeness to the feather of a pen." Specimens from the seas of tropi-
cal climates are from 5 to 6 inches high, but my British specimen,
which I owe to the liberality of J. E. Gray, Esq., is scarcely one inch
and a half. The polypidom rises from implexed tubular fibres : the
lower portion of the cylindrical jointed rachis is naked, the upper
pennate and gracefully proportioned. The cells are small with a
waved margin and a little spine on each side, and they are seated in
the axil of a long tubular incurved process which rises much above
them. Lamouroux has conjectured that the PI. pennatula of Flem-
ing is only a repetition of PI. myriophyllum ; and Milne-Edwards
refers it to PI. cristata. I cannot see the slightest foundation for
these suspicions.

4. P. FINN at a, stem plmnous, the pinnce alternate ; cells ra-
ther distant, one on each internode, campanulate, leaning, the
mouth entire ; vesicles ohpyriform, strongly toothed above. Dil-

lenius.*

Plate XVII. Fig. 4, 5.

* Born in 1687 at Darmstadt in Germany ; came to England in 1721 ; and died
at O.xford in 1747. He was the first Professor of Botany there, and has not been
equalled in celebrity by any successor. It is unnecessary to give particulars of

K

146 Z. HYDROIDA. Plumularia.

Fucoides setis minimis indivisis constans, Rail, Syn. i. 39, no. 7. tab. 2, fig. 2.

lit. a, (injm-ed and deprived of the pinnte. ) Sea Bristles, jE/fc, Corall.

19, no. 16, pi. 11. fig. a. A Sertularia pinnata, Lin. Syst. 1312.

Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 46. Berk. Syn. i. 219. Turt. Gmel. iv.
683. Turt. Brit. Faun. 215. Stew. Elem. ii. 446. Bosc, Vers, iii. 118.

Aglaophenia pinnata, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 172. Corall. 76.

Plumularia pinnata, Zam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 127. 2de edit. ii. 164-
Eisso, L'Europ. merid. v. 313. Johnston, Trans. Newc See. ii. 260,

and in Mag. Nat. Hist. vi. 498 La P. pinnee, Blainv. Actinolog.

477.
Hab. On shells, stones and other corallines in deep water. " In
littore maris pone Sheerness," D. Dillenius. At Brightelmstone and
Whitstable, Ellis. Scarborough, Mr Bean. Cullercoats, Northum-
berland, Mr J. Alder. Common in Berwick Bay, G. J. Frith of
Forth, Dr Coldstream. Cork Harbour, J. V. Thompson, Esq.

In general about on,e inch and a half, but sometimes attains the
height of four inches, very delicate, simple, plumous, white, and
pretty. The rachis is compressed, straight, jointed, the internodes
al)out six times longer than their diameter, and each giving origin
to three pinnae, in which character I find an invariable and ready dis-
tinction between this and the following species. There is a minute
tooth-like spine, only visible under the microscope, between the cells,
which are perfectly transparent, and admit a distinct view of the po-
lypes. These have a reddish body and numerous tentacula. The vesi-
cles are rarely produced, but then profusely, and the specimens on
which I have seen them have lost almost all their polypiferous pinnae.
At the base of the remnants they occur clustered, and are pear-shaped
with an aperture cut into a circle of spinous teeth, or, as Ellis ex-
presses it, " the tops of the ovaries are divided like a coronet."

5. P. SETACEA, pinnate, the pinncs alternate, one originating
at each ringed joint of the rachis ; cells very remote, campanulate,
ivith an even margin ; vesicles elliptical, smooth. Ellis.
Plate XVIII. Fig. 3—5.

Corallina setacea, Ellis, Corall. tab. 38, fig. 4 Sertularia pinnata 0,

Lin. Syst. 1312 S. setacea, Pall. Elencli. 148. Ellis and Soland.

Zooph. 47. Turt. Gmel. iv. 683. Wern. Mem. i. 564. Turt. Brit.
Faun. 216. Stew. Elem. ii. 446. Bosc, Vers, iii. 119- Hogg's Stock.
33. Lister in Phil. Trans, an. 1834, 371, pi. 8, fig. 4, but the vesicles

so eminent a man ; for his life I may refer the reader to Pulteney's Sketches
V. ii. p. 154, &c. ; Thomson's Hist. Roy. Society, p. 26 ; and Brewster's Edin.
Eneyclopffidia, v. vii. p. 742 ; a good article contributed by my worthy friend Dr
Neill. Haller's notice of his friend is short, but interesting. Bib. Bot. v. ii. p.
124.

Plumulaiiia. Z. HYDROIDA. 147

belong to PI. i)iiiiiata Aglaopheiiia sotacea, Lainoitr. Cor. Flex. 172.

Coiall. 70 Pluimilaria setacea, Lam. Aniin. s. Vert, ii, 129. "ide

edit. ii. 165. Flem. Brit- ATiim. 547. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist.

ix. 467. Starh, Elem. ii. 440. Bisso, V Eiirop. merid. v. 313

La p. setacee, Blainv. Actinol. 177.
Hab. Parasitical on other corallines, not uncommon. At Brigh-
ton on flag, Lister. Frequent near Hartlepool, growing on the roots
of the Palmated Fucus, Hogg, On scallop shells in the Frith of Forth,
Jameson. Berwick Bay, G. J. Belfast Lough, Templeton. Co^k
Harhour, Thompson.

In favourable sites this coralline will sometimes attain a height of
six inches, but in general it is smaller, more delicate, and less plumous
than PI. pinnata with which it has been confounded, although its
habit and minuter characters prove it to be quite distinct. The stem
is somewhat waved and regularly jointed, the joints consisting of two
or three I'ings, and immediately under each joint the internode is
somewhat enlarged in consequence of the pinna originating there, a
single pinna only springing from under each joint, whereas in P.
pinnata, as already remarked, three pinnae proceed from each inter-
space, the joints of which, moreover, consist of a single fracture. The
pinnae are jointed like the stem, celliferous, the cells small and dis-
tant. At the base of each there is a minute tubular process (abor-
tive cell ?), visible only with a high magnifier. The vesicles are el-
liptical, smooth, with a narrow plain orifice, .and originate in the axils
of the pinnae. — " The ova within were opake and yellow. Its polypi
had from sixteen to nineteen arms, and when they were full blown it
was an object of remarkable beauty." Lister.

6. P- Catharina, stem plumous^ the pinna opposite, hent
inioards ; cells distant, campamdate icith an even margin ; vesi-
cles scattered, pear-shaped, smooth. G. J.

Vignette, No. 8, page 79.
Plumiilaria Catharina, Johnston in Mag. Nat. Hist. \\. 498, fig. 61, 62.

Hah. On old shells, corallines, and ascidia in deep water. At
Scarborough, rare, Mr Bean. Frith of Forth, Dr Coldstream.
Frequent in Berwick Bay.

This equals PL pinnata in size and delicacy, but diifers from it very
obviously in having opposite pinnae, which, instead of being arched,
bend inwards, so as to render the general form of the coralhne con-
cave on a front view ; an appearance produced by the pinnae origi-
nating, not from the sides, but from the anterior face of the stem.
The stem itself is straight or slightly bent, jointed, pellucid, filled
with a granular fluid matter ; and, in which it diff"ers from its
congeners, bearing cells, there being always one at the base and be-
tween the insertion of the pinnae, and generally another on the

148

Z. HYDROIDA.

Pl-umularia.

interval between them. Be-
tween the cells there is a series
of minute tubular or tooth-hke
cells, visil)le only with a high
mag-nifier. The ovarian vesicles
are produced in summer : they
are stalked, shaped like a pear
or vase, solitary, scattered, and
originating always at the base of
a polype cell. From the interme-
diate cellules, particularly from
the one next the polype-cell,
there often grows up a small
trumpet-hke tube ; and I have
seen, in one specimen, all the
ends of the branches terminated
by four of these tubes diverg-
ing in pairs. — To this very distinct and elegant species I have taken
the liberty of assigning the Christian name of the lady to whom
this work is indebted for nearly all its illustrations.

" O quse fontibus integris

Gaudes, apricos necte flores,

Necte meo Lamiae coronam,
Pimple'i dulcis ! nil sine te mei
Possunt honores." Hor. Carm. i. ode 26.

* * Stem composed of many parallel tubes.
7. P. MYRiOPHYLLUM, clustered, the stems undivided, bellied
at distant intervals, pinnate ; pinncR leaning to one side ; cells
shortly tubular, seated in the axil of a curved spinous process, the
aperture wide and nearly even, Ellis.

Plate XIX. Fig. 4, 5.

Corallina fruticosa pennata, Petiv. Plant. Ital. tab. 2. fig. 11. Pbea-

sanfs-tail Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 14, no. 13, tab. 8, fig. a. A Ser-

tularia myriophyllum, Linn. Syst. 1309. Pall. Elench. 153. Ellis and
Soland. Zoopb. 44. Berk. Syn. i. 217. Turt. Gmel. iv. 678- Turt.

Br. Faun. 213. Stew. Elera ii. 443. Bosc, Vers,iii. 109 Aglaophenia

myriophyllum, Za7Bo«r. Cor. Flex. 168. Corall. 74. Plumularia myrio-
phyllum, Zam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 124. 2de edit. ii. 159. Flem. Brit. Anim.
547. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 466. Stark, Elera. ii. 440.

Risso, L'Europ. Merid. v. 312 La P. myriophylle, Blainv. Actino-

log. 477, pi. 83, fig. 4.
Hah. Deep water, rare. Near Dublin, Ellis. Coast of Devon-
shire, Dr Coldstream. " Found by R. Brown, Esq., on the shore
at Ballycastle. In Dublin Bay," Templeton.

4

Tlumularia. Z. HYDROIDA. 149

The roots are matted together with numerous entangled fibres.
Stalks 6 inches in height or more, the largest as thick as a crow-quill,
yellowish-brown, straight or slightly curved, swollen at intervals on
the back, and simple or once divided : they are each of them com-
posed of a number of tubes bound together, as is easily seen on a
transverse section, and the oblong dorsal knobs seem to be produced
by a less close adhesion of the tubes at these places, " marking pro-
bably the stages of growth." The branches or pinnag spring from
both sides beginning about the middle of the stalk, the lower part be-
ing naked, but they incline so much one way as to appear unilateral.
The wide cylindrical cells are divided from each other by a joint, and
are seated in the axil of a curved spinous process which projects far

enough to form a short tooth at the under side of the aperture.

When dry the stalk is twisted and more distinctly perceived to be
composed of a bundle of tubes, and consequently furrowed. In each
of the furrows there is a row of small holes with a raised brim as if
punctures had been made by an instrument pushed from within. The
holes are close- set, and regular in their size, form, and in the distances
between them.

8. P. FRUTESCENS, stcm branched, the branches primate ;
pinnce alternate, bifid; cells infundibidiform, leaning, rather dis-
tant, the mouth plain. Ellis.

Plate XX. Fig. 2, 3.

Sertiilaria Gorgonia, Pall. Elench. 158 S. frutescens, Ellis and So-

land. Zooph. 55. pi. 6, fig. a, A. and pL 9. fig 1, 2, encrusted with a
Gorgonia. Turt. Gmel. iv. 680. Turt. Brit. Faun. 214. Steiu. Elem.
ii. 445. Bosc, Vers, iii. 113. Hogg's Stock. 33.— Aglaophenia fru-
tescens, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 173. Corall. 76 Plumularia frutescens,

Flem. Brit. Anim. 547. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 2de edit. ii. 166 La

P. frutesceiite, Blainv. Actinolog. 477.
Hah. Found at Scarborough in Yorkshire, Ellis, — whence I have
specimens from 3Ir Bean, who states that it inhabits deep water,
where it grows attached to stones and shells by a fibrous base, and is
very rare. Hartlepool, Durham, J. Hogg, Esq.

Polypidom between four and five inches in height, firm and woody,
black or dusky-brown, varnished, irregularly branched. Stem and
branches tapered, composed of many parallel twisted capillary tubes,
the branches erecto-patent, spreading laterally, pinnate ; pinnsE rather
close, alternate, two or three from each space between the joints, and
each divided into two branches. Cells rather distant, adnate, cylin-
drical widening outwards, smooth, with an entire slightly everted
margin : there is a small cell in the axils of the pinnae, and a den-

150 Z. HYDROIDA. Laomedea.

tide at the base of all the cells, each of which occupies a joint. Vesi-
cles scattered, small, pear-shaped, the rim of the opening plain.

10. Laomedea.* Lamouroux.
Character. Polypidom rooted by a creeping jihre^ plant-
like^ erect ; jointed at regular intervals^ the joints ringed, incras-
sated, giving origin, alternately on opposite sides, to the shortly
pedicled cells ; cells campanulate : vesicles axillary. — Polypes
hydraform.

1. L. DicHOTOMA, stem filiform, branched dichotomously ;

cells alternate, campanulate, the rim even. Ellis.

Plate XXII. Fig. 1, 2.
Sea-thread Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 21, no. 18, pi. 12, fig. a, A Sertu-

laiia dichotoma, Lin. Syst. 1312. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 48. Berh.

Syn. i. 218. Turt. Gmel. iv. 682. Wern. Mem. i. 564. Turt. Brit.

Faun. 215. Stew. Elem. ii. 446. Bosc, Vers, iii. 118. Hogg's Stock.

3-3 S. longissima. Pall. Elencb. 119. Sert. volubilis. Fabric.

Faun. Groenl. 444. Laomedea dichotoma, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 207.

CoraU. 91. Risso, L'Europ. Merid. v. 314. La Laomedee dichotome,

Blainv. Actinol. 474. Campanularia dichotoma. Lam- Anim. s. Vert.

ii. 113. Flem. Brit Anim. 548. Stark, Elem. ii. 441. iJjsso, L'Europ.

Merid. v. 309- Grant in Edin. New Phil. Journ. i. 151. Grant in

Cyclop. Anat. and Phys. i. 108, fig. 30. Grant, Comp. Anat. 10, fig.

5. Johnston in Trans. Newc- Soc. ii. 255. Templeton in Mag. Nat.

Hist. ix. 469. Lister in Phil. Trans, an. 1834, 372, pi. 8, fig. 5.
Hab. On old shells in deep water, common. " This is found in
great abundance on the south-west coast of England, and seems most
curiously contrived, from its structure, to resist the violence of the
waves, allits joints bein^ furnished with springs," JEllis. Scarborough,
Mr Bean. Dunstanborough Castle, Mr R. Embleton- Berwick
Bay, G. J. Leith shore, Jameson. Found on the shore of Dublin
Bay, &c. Templeton.

Polypidom confervoid, rooted by a creeping flexuous fibre, from
four to six inches high, slender, filiform, smooth, of a blackish colout-,
wavy, branched in a dichotomous or alternate manner, the branches
ringed at their origins, simple or divided like the primary stem. The
cells are bell-shaped, on ringed stalks, transparent and very tender, so
that specimens gathered amongst the rejectamenta of the sea are
mostly deprived of them. Polypes reddish. Vesicles ovate, smooth,
axillary, filled with ova in spring. These are numerous, " amount-
ing to twenty or thirty in each vesicle," and like the ova of zoophytes

* A*ofjiiS'ii», — the name of one of the Nereids, according to Hesiod's Theo-
gony. V. 257.

Laomedea. Z. HYDROIDA. 15J

in general, clothed with cilia and moveable. Every three of them
are inclosed, while in the vesicle, within a thin transparent motion-
less capsule, presenting at its free extremity several stiff, straight^
diverging pointed processes, which Ellis mistook for the tentacula of
a young polypus. Dr Grant.

Sir John G. Dalyell has made some singular observations on this
species, which seem irreconcileable with those of Professor Grant and
Cavolioi. He tells us that it rarely produces vesicles. When pre-
sent they contain from 20 to 30 greyish corpuscula with a dark cen-
tral nucleus. " At first, all are immature and quiescent, but motion
at length commences : the corpuscula become more distinct ; sevei'al
slender arms protrude from the orifice of the vesicle, which are seen
in vehement action, and, after many struggles, an animated being es-
capes. But this has no relation either to the planula of the Sertu-
larise, or the corpusculum of the Flustra, Alcyonium, or Actinia. It
might be rather associated with the Medusariai. Before ascertaining
its origin, I had named it Animalculum tintinnabuluvi, from its gene-
ral resemblance to a common hand-bell, for the purpose of recogni-
tion. This creature is whitish, tending to transparency, about half
a line in diameter ; the body is like a deep watch glass, surmounted
by a crest rising from the centre, and fringed by about twenty-three
tentacula pendant from the lip below. These are of muricate struc-
ture, or rough, and connected to the lip by a bulb twice their own
diameter. The summit of the crest unfolds occasionally into four
leaves, and four organs prominent on the convexity of the body, ap-
pear at its base. When free, the animal swims by jerks, or leaps
through the water, or drops gently downwards ; it is invited to move
by the light, and it has survived at least eight days. Then it disap-
pears, at least I have not been able to pursue its history longer. No
other product has ever issued from the vesicles of the Sertularia di-
chotoma." Edin. New Phil. Journ. xxi. 91-2.

2. L. GENICULATA, stem zig-zag, simple or sparingly brandi-
ed ; cells on annular stalks from the joints, alternate, campanu-
late, the 7'im plain ; vesicles ovate. Doody.

Plate XXI. Fig. 1, 2.
Corallina confervoides gelatinosa alba, gcniculis crassiusculis pellucidis,

Baii, Syn. i. 34, no. 7. Fucoides setaceum tenuissime alatiini, Ibid.

38, no. 6, pi. 2, fig. 2. Ellis, in Phil. Trans, abridg. x. 491, pi. 12, fig.

1, a, A. Knotted-thread Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 22, no. 19, pi. 12.

h. B Sertularia geniculata, Z/». Syst. 1312. Pull. Elencli. 117.

Mull. Zool. Dan. tab. 117, fig. 1-4. Ellis awA Solund. Zooi)li. 49. Berk.
Syn. i. 218. Tiirt. Gmel. iv. 682. Weni. Mem. i. 564. Tint. Brit.
Faun. 215. .S^ew. Elem. ii. 446. ^osc. Vers, iii. 117. Z«»(. Anim. s.

152 Z. HYDROIDA. Laomedea.

Vert. ii. 120. 2de edit. ii. 149. Hogg's Stock. 33 Laomedea geni-

culata, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 208. Corall. 91. Templeton in Mag. Nat.

Hist. ix. 466. La L. geniciilee, Blainv. Actinol. 474 Campanularia

geniculata, Flem. Brit. Anim. 548. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii.
235.
Hab. Parasitical and gregarious on sea weeds that grow near low-
tide mark, especially on tlie frond of Laminaria digitata, very com-
mon.

Polypidom attached by a creeping tulnilar thread, erect, about an
inch in height, simple or sparingly branched, regularly zig-zag, slen-
der and flexile, of a clear white colour, often tinted more or less with
rose-red, and filled with a dusky granular pulp : at every flexure, the
stem is divided by a single joint and incrassated, a twisted pedicle
originating from the incrassated part alternately from opposite sides ;
the pedicle consists of 4-6 nearly equal rings, is erecto-patent, taper-
ed slightly and terminated with a bell-shaped cell, perfectly transpa-
rent and entire. The vesicles are matured in spring : they originate
from the incrassation of the joints at the side of the cells, and re-
semble an elegant Greek vase or urn, being of an elliptical or ovate
shape, with a very short tubular opening on the flattened apex. The
ova are comparatively large.

The polypidom is occasionally tinted of a pink or rose-red colour,
. — an accident which is not unfrequent with the Sertulariadse in ge-
neral, especially with Sert. abietina and pumila. On what the colour
depends has not been ascertained. Some specimens so tinted retain
the colour after being dried, while others lose it. The nature of the
habitat has apparently no influence on it, for I have often observed
coloured and colourless specimens on the same stone or sea-weed.

f5. L. GELATINOSA, " Sill) Ordinate branches dichotomously
branched ; cells on twisted footstalks^ companulate^ icith even mar-
gins." Ellis.

Plate XXI. Fig. 3, 4. and Plate XXIII. Fig- 1.
Corallina tiliformis ramosa pedunculis calyeulonim contortis, Ellis, Corall.
pi. 38, fig. 3, and p. 23, pi. 12, fig. c, C. — Sertiilaria gelatinosa, Pall
Elench. 116. *S^ew. Elem. ii. 444. jBosc, Vers. iii. 112. Fleming in

Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 84. Flem. Phil. Zool. ii. 616. pi. 5, fig. 3

Campanularia gelatinosa, Flem. Brit. Anim. 549. Johnston in Trans.

Newc. Soc. ii. 254. Sertularia dichotoma, in part. Lister in Phil. Trans.

an. 1834, 372, 375, pi. 10, fig.^^l — Laomedea gelatinosa, Corallina, 92.

La L. gelatineuse, Blainv. Actinol, 475 — La Scrtolara dictoma, Cavol.

Pol. mar. 194, tav. 7, fig- '5 — 8.

Hab. On stones ^tween tide marks. "Very common in the

Tay above Balmerino, towards Flisk beach," Fleming. In Berwick

Bay, abundantly, G. ./,

Laomedea. Z. HYDROIDA. 153

This species, in its most perfect state, rises to the height of 8 or 10
inches. The stena is as thick as small twine, straight, opake, and
composed of many tubular threads twisted together. It does not
properly divide itself, but sends off branches from all sides, which are
either opposite or alternate, and much ramified into diverging branch-
lets, each of them marked with three or four rings at its base, and
terminated with a bell-shaped polype-cell of a very thin corneous
texture. A specimen of this description from Shetland, in the col-
lection of my friend Dr Coldstream, is figured in Plate XXII I.

But more commonly Laom. gelatinosa is found in a much hum-
bler condition, and under a guise that requires for its discrimination
from Laom. geniculata, a careful examination. It occurs thus in
Berwick Bay, growing gregariously on the sides and under surface of
stones lying in shallow pools between tide-marks, and seemingly
giving a preference to those that contain an impure or brackish
water. The shoots are all connected with one another by the ra-
dicle fibre which creeps in an irregular manner along the rock ; they
are rarely above an inch in height, simple or sparingly branched,
consisting of a single tube of a light corneous colour and texture,
ringed above the origins of the long twisted filiform pedicles on which
the polype-cells are raised. These cells are deeply cupped, transparent,
with a wide even margin. Vesicles urn-shaped, smooth, shooting
from the axils of the pedicles. They are matured during the
summer months, when we find them filled with ova of a circular flat-
tish form, marked with a dark speck in the centre. At first they fill
not more than half of the vesicle, but by their increase in size they soon
come to occupy the whole cavity, and are ultimately extruded from the
top, after which the empty vesicle soon disappears. The ova while
in the vesicle are ai'ranged round a central placentular column, and
the lid which closes the vesicle is a mere dilatation of this column,
which appears to be composed of two pieces soldei'ed together, and
bulged at intervals, where perhaps the ova are more immediately af-
fixed in their immature state.

The Polypes have about twenty long filiform tentacula roughened
with minute tubercles placed in whorls. In their centre is the mouth,
which assumes the shape sometimes of a rounded projecting tubercle,
sometimes of a narrow column, and sometimes of a broad flat disk
with a stricture under it simulating a neck. It leads directly to the
stomachal cavity which is large and undivided, and I have occasional-
ly witnessed within it currents of a fluid filled with minute granules,
as has been more fully noticed by Mr Lister and Dr Fleming.

Milne-Edwards, in the belief of there being a specific difference
between the zoophytes described by Pallas and Fleming, has propos-

154

Z. HYDROIDA.

Camp A NUL ARIA

ed to call the latter Campanularia Flemingii, distinguished by the
cells having an even rim, whereas it is stated to be serrulated in the
other. I have preferred following the judgment of Fleming, who
has very carefully studied the species.

1 1. Campanularia, * Lamarck.
Character. Polypidom rooted, creeping or when compound
erect, the main tube filiform, continuous, giving off its peduncu-
lated cells irregularly or in whorls ; pedicles ringed, usually long ;
cells campanulate ; vesicles scattered, sessile. — Polypes hydra-
form.

* Stem a single tube.
1. C. voLUBiLis, stem creeping, filiform ; cells on long slen-
der annidar pedicles, campaniform ivith a serrated rim ; vesicles
ovate, lorinkled concentrically. Ellis.

Fig. 17

ri
\ \

Small climbing Coralline with bell-shaped cups, Ellis, Corall. 24, no. 21 ,
pi. 14, fig. a. A. Phil. Trans, xlviii. 629, pi. 22, no. 2. Phil. Trans.

abridg. x. 491, pi. 12, fig. 2, B. Sertularia volubilis, Lin. Syst. 1311.

Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 31, pi. 4, fig. e, f, E. F. copied into Kirb,/'s
Bridgew. Treat, i. pi. 2, fig. 2. Berk. Syn. i. 218. Turt. Gmcl. iv.
080. Fabric. Faun. Grcenl. 444. Wern. Mem. i. 3G4. Turf. I5rit.
Faun. 214. Slew. Elem. ii. 444. Bosc, Vers, iii, 112. Hof/y's Stock.

* From Campanula, a bell.
3

Campanularia. Z. HYDROIDA. 155

34, S. imiflora, Pall. Elench. 121. Ellis, in Phil. Trans. Ivii. 437,

pi. 19, fig. 9 Clytia volubilis, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 202. Corall. 88.

Campanularia volubilis,ZaHi. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 113. 2de edit. ii. 132. Flem.
Brit. Anim. 348. Risso, L'Europ. merid. v. 309. Johnston in Trans

Newc. Soc. ii. 255. Templeton, in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 466 La

Campamilaire grimpaute, Blainv. Actinolog. 472, pi. 84, fig. 2.
Ilab. Parasitical on other corallines, frequent. Brighthelrastone,
on the coast of Sussex, JEllis. Frith of Forth, adhering to Flustrae
and Fuci, Jameson. Berwick Bay, G. J. Found in Belfast Lough,
Templeton. On specimens of Sertularia tamarisca, &c. from Scar-
borough, Bean.

A minute species, and a beautiful object for the microscope. I have
seen the antennae of a crab (Lithodes spinosa) so profusely invested
with this zoophyte as to resemble hairy brushes. The coralline in
this instance had chosen a station by which it obtained all the bene-
fits of locomotion. Our figure represents a specimen which had
adorned in a similar manner the remnant of a Pluraularia falcata. The
stem is a capillary corneous tube which creeps and twists itself upon
its support, throwing out, at alternate intervals, a long slender stalk
twisted throughout or only partially, that supports a bell-shaped cup
of perfect transparency and prettily serrulated round the brim. The
ovarian vesicles arise from the creeping tube, are sub-pedicellate,
ovate, coarsely wrinkled, and contain each several ova. Polypes with
numerous slender white tentacula.

2. C. SYRiNGA, stem creeping, capillary ; cells on shorter
twisted pedicles, tubulous, ivith a plain margin. Ellis.

Fig. 18.

Creeping Bell-Coralline, Ellis, Corall. 25, pi. 14, fig. h. B Sertularia

syringa, Lin. Syst. 1311. Berk. Syn. i. 218. Turl. Gmel. iv. 680.

Turt. Brit. Faun. 214. Stew. Elem. ii. 444. Bosc, Vers, iii. 113

S. volubilis, Pall. Elench. 122 S. repens, JEJWs- and Soland. Zooph.

156 Z. HYDROIDA. Campanularia.

52. Hogg's Stock. 34 Clytia syringa, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 203.

Corall. 89. Campanularia syringa, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 113. '2de

edit. ii. 132. Flem. Brit. Anim. 548. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc.
ii. 256. Blainv. Actinolog. 472.
Hub. Parasitical on other corallines and the lesser fuci, less com-
mon than the preceding.

This is only to be distinguished from C. volubilis by the aid of the
microscope. The two species frequently grow intermixed, and their
habit is the same, but the syringa is easily distinguished by its denser
corneous structure, its cylindrical tubular cells, and the shortness of
the pedicles which support them. Polypes with 8 filiform equal ten-
tacula. — Pallas describes a branched variety from the coast of Corn-
wall, which, however, undoubtedly belongs to C. dumosa. His words
are — " Nuper ex Oceano Cornubiam alluente, ubi haec Sertularia in
testaceis et Zoophytis omnibus abundat, accepi ramescentem eandem,
seu vegetantem ; dum tubuli 2)lurimi proprii simul assurgentes effi-
ciunt stirpes sponte erectas, stepe sesqui-pollicares, ramumque unum
vel alteram exserentes, totas ab imo ad summum calyculis tubulifor-
mibus, sine ordine, quaquaversum muricatae/'

* * Stem composed of many parallel tubes.
3. C. VERTiciLLATA, erects branched ; cells on verticillate pe-
dicles, campanulate icith a serrulated rim. Dr Brownrigg.*

Plate XXII. Fig. 3, 4.
Horse-tail Coralline with bell-shaped cups, Ellis, Corall. 23, no. 20, pi.

13, fig. a, A Sertularia verticillata, Z>znw. Syst. 1310. Pall. Elench.

115. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 50. Berk. Syn. i. 218. Titrt. Gmel.
iv.. 679. Turt. Brit. Faun. 214. Stew. Elem. ii. 444. Base, Vers,

iii, 112. Hogg's Stock. 34. Clytia verticillata, Lamour. Cor. Flex.

202. Corall. 88. Campanularia verticillata, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii.

113. 2de edit. ii. 131. Flem. Brit. Anim. 550. Templeton'm Mag. Nat.

Hist. ix. 466. Stark, Elem. ii. 441.- La Laomedee vertieillee, Blainv.

Actinolog. 475, pi. 84, fig. 3.
Hah. " Near Whitehaven, in Cumberland," Dr Brownrigg. Near
Hartlepool, Durham, not very frequent, J. Hogg, Esq. Not uncom-
mon on the coast at Scarborough, adhering to shells, &c. Mr Bean.
Cullercoats, Northumberland, Mr Joshua Alder.

* Dr William Browmrigg, born at High Close Hall, Cumberland, March 24,
1711 ; graduated M. D- at Leyden in 1737 ; elected F. R. S. in 1742 ; in 1748
published his valuable work on the art of making common salt ; received the
Copley medal for the year 1765 ; continued to prosecute with zeal his chemical
and philosophical experiments, and to eiijoy his literary taste, until the period
of his death, which took place at Ormathwaite, January 6, 1800, aged 88 years.
For an able biographical account of this learned and excellent physician, see the
Annals of Philosophy, Vol. x. p. 321, he.

Campanulakia. Z. HYDROIDA. 157

Polypitloiu adhering; by creeping- tubulous fibres, erect, iiTegularly
branched, the stem and branches composed of many closely applied
parallel tubes ; branches erect or erecto-patent, cylindrical, straight,
hirsute from the capillary pedicles of the cells which originate in
whorls at stated intervals : the pedicles are ringed at top and bottom
but generally smooth about the middle, patent, simple : the cell itself
campanulate, thin and transparent with a serrated brim. Vesicles
scattered, arising- from the branches, solitary, very shortly stalked,
oval, smooth, with a narrow aperture.

4. C. ? DUMOSA, erector climbing, ii^regularly branched, hirsute
with the cells, lohich are long, tubular, patent, almost sessile, the
aperture entire. Rev. Dr Fleminor.

PLATEXXIII.Fig-. 2— 5.

Coralliiiii astaci corniculorum semiili, Petiv. Plant. Ital. pi. 2, fig. 10 —

Sertularla dumosa, Fleming in Edin. Phil. Jouni. ii, 83 Tubularia

tubifera, Johnston in Edin. Phil. Journ. xiii. 222, pi. 3, fig. 2, 3 La-

fea cornuta, Lamour. Soland. ^ooph. 5, pi. 65, fig. 12-14 Campanu-

laria dumosa, Flem- Brit. Anini. 548. Johnston in Trans. Newc Soc ii.
254. pi. 11, fig. 1 La Laomedee touffue, Blainv. Actinol. 474.

Hah. On rocks, shell-fish, and other corallines, in deep water.
On the shores of Devonshire, Montagu. At Newhaven in the Frith
of Forth, at Aberbrothick and in Zetland, Fleming. Berwick Bay,
ver}^ common, G. J.

There are two varieties of this species : the first is from 2 to 4 inches
in height, bushy, irregularly branched, the branches straight, square,
slightly tapered upwards, and formed of several parallel tubes ; (Fig. 4.)
the second is a single thread-like tube which climbs up the stalks
of other flexible corallines, giving off on all sides its long spreading-
trumpet-shaped cells, which are not unlike those of C. syringa, but are
to be distinguished by their thicker and much more horny texture, and
by being almost or altogether sessile (Fig. 2, 3.) Small specimens
of the first variety are very common on some sorts of crabs, but the
larger specimens have their roots or base almost invariably immersed
in the substance of a sponge, the Halichondria panicea or papillaris.
Neither the vesicles nor polypes have been observed, and there is
something in the habit, and in the form of the cells, which renders it
very doubtful whether this species belongs to this order.

This appears to be the proper place to notice two doubtful zoo-
phytes which have been I'eferred to the genus

158 Z. HYDROIDA. Cymodocea.

Cymodocea,* Lamouroux.
Character. " Plant-like ; cells cylindrical, varying in
length, Jiliform, alternate or opposite ; stem Jistular, marked loith
rings beloiv, plain above, and without interior division."

1. C. SIMPLEX, stems simple, slightly undulated, tivig-like ;

cells long and filiform, alternate. Dawson Turner.-f-

Cymodocea simplex, Lamour. Cor. Flex. 216, pi. 7, fig. 2. Corallina, 95,

pi. 7, fig. 2 La Cymodocee simple, Blainv- Actinolog. 487. pi. 81,

fig- 4.

Hab. The sea near Yarmoiith, and in Ireland, Turner.
Height nearly three inches : colour a yellow-fawn.

2. C. coMATA, stems straight, cylindrical, almost simple ;

branchlets capillary, whorled, numerous, fiexuous, jointed and

ceiliferous. Dr Leach.J

Cymodocea comata, Lamour. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 15, pi. 67, fig-
12, 13. Flem. Brit. Anim. 551. La C. chevelue, Blainv. Actino-
log. 487.

Hab. Coast of Devonshire, Leach.

Height about one decimetre : colour yellowish. At each joint of
the branchlets there is a short cell ringed at its base, and almost in-
visible to the naked eye.

I have seen no authentic specimen of either species, the above
descriptions being translated from the works of Lamouroux. He
says that Cymodocea has the closest relations with Tubularia,
from which, however, it differs in the position of the polype-cells
which are placed, not at the top of the branches, but upon these
branches or upon their divisions. From this circumstance La-
mouroux classes the genus amongst the Sertulariadse, to which alli-
ance the absence of ovarian vesicles seems opposed, nor can we hope
to locate the genus with any certainty until the polypes have been
discovered. The very existence of the genus has in fact been ques-

* The name of one of the sea-nymphs into which the ships of iEneas were
changed by Cybele.

f D. Turner, Esq. of Yarmouth, F. L. S. : — very eminent for his knowledge
of cryi^togamic botany, and for his skill in antiquities. He is the author of a
beautiful work on the Fuci. The genus Dawsonia of Robert Brown is a just
tribute to his merit.

\ William Elford Leach — a naturalist of most indomitable enthusiasm and very
extraordinary acquirements. He died in Italy in 1836, of cholera. " We may
say, with respect to the extent and effect of his zoological labours, — Nihil non
tetigit, et omnia quae tetigit ornavit." — Kirhy.

Cymodocea. Z. HYDROIDA. 159

tioned. IMr J. E. (Jray, a high authority in matters of this kind,
says, " the Cymodocea) appear to be only Sertularite which liave lost
their cells," (Synop. of Brit. Mus. p. 75) ; and Blainville makes the
same assertion in reference to the above species.* Dr Fleming is of
opinion that C. simplex has been established from an individual of
Campanularia dichotoma in a depauperated state ; (Brit. Anim. 548,)
while again IMr Hogg informs me that he is almost satisfied that this
Cymodocea is Plumularia pinnata with its pinnae rubbed off by the
waves or tide on the beach ; and the specimens he has sent me in
confirmation of this supposition are certainly very exact to Lamou-
roux's figure, nat. size, — for it must be observed that his magnified fi-
gure represents the polypidom as unjointed or continuous, whereas it
is regularly jointed both in the Campanularia and Plumularia. But
I make this remark not to invalidate the opinions either of Dr Flem-
ing or Mr Hogg, for that of the latter I am disposed to adopt ; but it
gives me an opportunity of warning the student against an implicit
reliance on the figures of Lamouroux, which we are assured by Blain-
ville, who has compared them with the specimens from which they
were made, are in many instances very erroneous.

* Milne-Edwards also adopts this view. Lam. Anim. s. Vert 2de edit- ii.
157.

" All the works of the Lord are exceeding good : and none may say, What is

this ? Wherefore is that ? for at time convenient they shall all be sought out

All the works of the Lord are good : So that a man cannot say, This is worse
than that ; for in time they shall all be well approved." — Ecclesiasticus.

BRITISH ZOOPHYTES.

PART III.

ZoOPHYTA ASTEROIDA.

Fii(. li).

GORGONIA FlABELLUJI.

" — — — — — all the firmament

" Was throng'd with constellations, and the ^v;\

" Strown with their images " — James Montgomery.

" Nicostratus in ^lian, finding a curious piece of wood, and being wondered
at by one, and asked what pleasure he could take to stand as he did still gaz-
ing on the picture ? answered, Hadst thou mine eyes, my friend, thou wouldst
not wonder, but rather be ravished as I am at the inimitable art of this rare and
admirable piece- I am sure no picture can express so much wonder and excel-
lency as the smallest insect : but we want Nicostratus his eyes to behold them.

" And the praise of God's wisdom and power lies asleep and dead in every
creature, until man actuate and enliven it. I cannot, therefore, altogether con-
ceive it unworthy of the greatest mortals to contemplate the miracles of nature,
and that as they are more visible in the smallest and almost contemptible crea-
tures, for there most lively do they express the infinite power and wisdom of
the great Creator, and erect and draw the minds of the most intelligent to the
first and prime Cause of all things, teaching them as the power, so the presence
of the Deity in the smallest insects. " Samuel Purchas.

ZOOPHYTA BRITANNICA.

ORDER II.
Z. ASTEROIDA.

Character.

Polypes compound, the mouth encircled icith 8 pectinate tenta-
cida ; stomach membranous ivith dependant vasculiform appen-
dages ; intestine ; anus ; reproductive gemmules produced in-
teriorly. Polype-mass variable in form, free or permanent-
ly attached, carnose, generally strengthened with a horny or cal-
careous axis enveloped ivith the gelatinous or creto-gelatinous
crust in which the polype-cells are immersed, and which open
on the surface in a starred fashion with 8 rays.

Observations.
On a cursory view the Polypidoms of the three families em-
braced in this order appear very dissimilar, and accordingly, by
many recent authors, they have been scattered over the class,
and placed widely asunder. The affinity between them, how-
ever, is generally acknowledged, and had been distinctly per-
ceived by some of the earliest zoophytologists. Thus Bohadsch
found so much in common between the typical Pennatulae and
a species of Alcyonium, that he has not hesitated to describe
them as members of the same genus ; and although the more
systematic character of Pallas prevented him falling into this
error, — if error it can indeed be called, — he did not the less
recognize the relationship between the genera or families.* Pal-

" " Pennatulae Alcyoniis specierum gradatione ita propinquse sunt et tamen
simul structura, habitu, vitseque sensitivse gi-adu discrepant, ut exempliini majoris
siraul affinitatis et discordantise inter duo genera in rerum natura vix dari exis-
timem. Certo respectu Pennatulae ad Alcyonia sunt, quod Hydraead Sertularias."
Elench. p. 362 — In' relation to this paragraph consult also p. 370, 343, 162,
191:— and Misc. Zool. p. 177.

164 ZOOPHYTA ASTEHOIDA.

las also tells us that his Pennatula cynomorium ditfers from the
Alcyonium only in this, that the former is a moveable, and the
latter a fixed polypidom ; and he saw with equal clearness, the
connection which exists between these genera and the shrub-
like Gorgonia. Of the Pennatula mirabilis he had entertained
doubts whether it was not rather a species of Gorgonia until
he perceived that the stem was attenuated at each end and free ;
and of the Sea- Pens generally, Ellis remarks, that they are " a
genus of zoophytes not far removed from the Gorgonias, on ac-
count of their polype mouths, as well as having a bone in the
inside, and flesh without." On the other hand the Gorgoniae,
says Pallas, seem, with the exception of their horny skeleton, to
be nearly similar in structure to the Alcyonia ; but as there are
species of Gorgonia which are suberose internally and almost
of a uniform medullary consistence, even this mark of distinction
fails to separate the tribes, and we have little left to guide us in
arranging these osculant species excepting their external habit,
or, if we may so express ourselves, their physiognomy. Gorgonia
Briareus has been described by some authors as an Alcyonium ;
and Pallas would have enumerated the Gorgonia radicata in the
same genus, had not its gorgon-like habit interfered. I am satis-
fied that no zoophytologist can examine Ellis's figure and de-
scription of Gorgonia suberosa without being convinced that it
pertains rather to the congenerous family, or holds at least very
debateabie ground between them.

The names which the fishermen have conferred on the poly-
pidoms of this order will convey to the student a better idea of
their general appearances than any laboured description. The
Pennatuhe in their language are Sea- Pens ; the Virgularige are
Sea- Rushes ; Sea- Paps, Deadman's hand or Dead-man's toes,
if not agreeable, are yet expressive names for the Alcyonia ;
and the Gorgoniae are Sea-shrubs when they branch away irre-
gularly, but when the branches inosculate and form a sort of
net, they become Sea- Fans, which some naturalist, of more than
our usual fancy, has appropriated to the use of Venus — Fla-
bellnm Veneris.*

* Kay has especially culleil attention to the fan-like growth of submarine bodies.
— "That the motion of the water descends- to a good depth, I prove from those
plants that grow deepest in the sea, because they all generally grow flat in man-
ner of a fan, and not with branches on all sides like trees ; which is so contriv-

ZOOPIIYTA ASTEROIDA. 165

In every polypidom of this order there are three parts which
require notice, — the polypes, the fibro-fleshy calcareous crust
in which they are placed, and the internal axis. The con-
nection between these parts is indissoluble, and although
we may treat of them separately, and as if they were some-
what independent, yet we must guard against the entertain-
ment of any such opinion. * It was once indeed a debated
question whether each polypidom might not rightly be con-
sidered a mere aggregation of separate animalcules, but all that
we know of their habits and structure goes to prove the contrary,
so that no one probably now disputes that the polypidom with
its polypes constitute but one body, the latter being in the place
of as many mouths and stomachs scattered over the surface.
The whole mass, with the exception at most of the axis in those
which possess a stony or horny one, is living and organized, re-
ceiving the material of its nourishment and growth from the food
captured and digested by the polypes ; and as they have not
only an organical union with the irritable flesh in which they are
immersed, but are many of them more intimately associated to-
gether by means of canals and intestines, so they participate in
every benefit and every evil. When, therefore, one pinna of a
Sea- Pen is lacerated or cut away, the remaining pinna? gradu-
ally shrink, the polypes withdraw, and the whole body con-
tracts in every dimension ; or if a portion of the Alcyonium be
subjected to irritation, the gradual collapse and contraction of
the polypidom renders it obvious that the irritation has been
communicated and felt through the entire mass.-f- On the con-
ed by the providence of nature, for that the edges of them do in that posture
with most ease cut the water flowing to and fro ; and should the flat side be ob-
jected to the stream, it would soon be turned edge-wise by the force of it, be-
cause in that site it doth least resist the motion of the water : whereas did the
branches of these plants grow round, they would be thrown backward and for-
ward every tide. Nay, not only the herbaceous and woody submarine plants,
but also the lithophyta themselves afl^ect this manner of growing, as I have ob-
served in various kinds of corals and pori." — The Wisdom of God in the Crea-
tion, p. 77.

• Tiedemann has inadvertently asserted that the polypes '• are able to leave
the crust and return to it." Comp. Phy. 306.

}• " Unknown to sev the pregnant oyster swells,
And coral-insects build t/ieir radiate cells ;
Parturient Sires caress their infant train,
And heaven-born Storge weaves the social chain ■

166 ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA.

trary, when at rest and undisturbed, the polypes protrude their
tentacula and a portion of the body, and, imbibing the circum-
fluent water, this percolates into the interior through numerous
anastomosing canals, and distends the polypidom so much that
it will more than double or treble its former size. In this re-
spect the Zoophyta asteroida show an affinity to the Helianthoida,
and differ from the hydraform and more especially from the as-
cidian orders.

The axis of the Alcyonidse is imperfect, but exists neverthe-
less in the form of calcareous or siliceous spicula diffused through
the gelatinous interior, or more or less densely clustered at the
centre; and the appearance of these spicula is such that we
are almost tempted to believe they may possibly be the products
of crystallization rather than of any regular secretion.* It might
not be difficult, but it is beyond my province, to trace the gra-
dual increase and consolidation of these spicula through many
intermediate species to the horny flexible axis of Gorgonia,
where it has become such an efficient support to the whole soft
envelope as to claim not improperly the name of its skeleton ;
thence to the stony axis of the coral ; and having there reached
its maximum of developement, I might, on the other hand, have
marked its progress towards degeneration until it became again
only a partial support, such as we find it in the naked middle
portion of the Pennatulidae, more especially in some of the fo-
reign and less typical species of that family.

According to Lamarck, this axis, under all its modifications, is
inorganic, containing neither vessels nor any portion of the
body of the polypes, but formed of matter excreted by them,
and afterwards thickened, solidified and depurated by af-
finity.-f- Although this is rather, on Lamarck's part, the de-

Successive births her tender cares combine,
And soft affections live along the line."

DarwiiVs Temp, of Nature, canto ii.
* They may be compared with the Raphides found in the intercellular pas-
sages of certain monocotyledonous plants. See Lindley's Introd. to Botany,

p. 29 Mr Children found in the ashes of a piece of the axis of Gorgonia

Flabellum, a distinct trace of pure silica, sufficient to form a globule before the

blow-pipe Ann. of Philosophy, New Series, Vol. ix. p. 43).

t " L'obscrvation constate que I'axe central de ccs polypiers, quoiqu' offrant
quelquefois dcs couches concentriqurs, ne fut jamais organise, n'a contenu ni
vaisseaux quelconques, ni aucune portion du corps dcs polypes ; qu'il est le
rcsultat dc matieres excretees par ces polj'pes, matieres qui se sont epaissies,

ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA. 167

duction of theory than of observation, yet the opinion is in the
main correct, and in correspondency with what had been long
previously maintained by Ellis. In the spicula of Alcyonidae
certainly, we can find no traces of organism, and they lie seem-
ingly unconnected with the adjacent parts. The axis of Pen-
natula is a solid bone formed of laminae laid over each other,
softer and cartilaginous at each extremitv where it seems to be
organically connected with the soft surrounding flesh : it is evi-
dently secreted, and deposited successively in layers, from the
inner surface of a thin pellucid membrane which Bohadsch has
described as investing it in the manner of a periosteum,* and
probably is endowed with that low degree of vitality which pre-
serves the horns, hairs and feathers of the higher animals in that
elastic and fresh condition which they have only when in
connection with living parts. The horny axis of Gorgon ia,
notwithstanding some observations of Ellis which apparently
tend to a different conclusion,-}- is not more distinctly organized,
and is doubtless formed in the same manner as the axis of Pen-
natula, for it is also of a lamellated structure, and, according to
Lamouroux, is invested with a similar periosteum. % A cross
section of the stem or of a principal branch will show the layers
to be disposed concentrically round a central medulla, the layers

coiidensees, epurees par I'affinite, reunies, juxta-posees successivement, et ont
forme, par leur reunion, I'axe central et longitudinal dont il s'agit. Aussi cet
axe est-il d'une substance continue, non poreuse." — Anim. s. Vert. V. ii. p. 294.
See also p. 78—80 ; and p. 311.

• " Totum OS membrana tenuis, lutescens, pellucida cingit, atque in utroque
extremo in ligamentum contorquetur, quod ex una parte in apice trunci pinnati,
ex altera vero in apice trunci nudi in.seritur." — De Anim. mar. p. 104. See also
Corall. p. 214,218,224.

f " Proceeding thus far, I was led on to observe, what kind of communica-
tion there was between the suckers (or polypes) and the bone of the animal ;
for this end I examined several specimens, both dry, as well as those that were
preserved in spirits, with good magnifying glasses, and could distinctly trace an
infinite number of minute winding canals, that lead from the suckers through
the flesh into those parallel longitudinal tubes, which closely surround the bone
or solid part on all sides ; perhaps these may not improperly be called the peri-
osteum ; for all along that side of those tubes by which they adhere to the bony
part, I could discover the pores very plainly from whence the juices flow, that
supply it with proper materials to answer this great end." — Soland. Zooph. 69.

\ " L'ecorce des Gorgoniees ne se lie pas immediatement a I'axe, elle en est
separee par une membrane d'une nature particuliere, si mince dans Ic genre
Horgonia, qu'il est tres-difficilc de I'apcrrevoir ; elle est plus apparentc dans les
Plexaures et les Eunicees." — Polyp Corall. Flex. p. 391.

168

ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA.

more or less compactly pressed according to the nature of the spe-
cies. (Fio-. 21.) The whole section presents a certain resemblance
to a similar section of a dicotyledonous tree : (Fig. 20.) the me-
dulla in position and outward appearance is a pith ; the horny
axis is the wood ; and the fleshy crust has been denominated the
bark;* — nor perhaps could fault be found with this language,
since it is sufficiently illustrative, had it not been the mother of
some very erroneous notions, and a great means of their propa-
gation and continuance. Thus Linnaeus, in his definition of
Gorgonia, calls the axis a vegetating stem ; and as if this was
not sufficiently explicit, we find Pallas entering into detail and
telling us that the concentric circles are produced by successive
transmutations of the fleshy crust, in the same manner that the
circles of the wood of trees are formed by transformations of the
inner layers of the bark.f And this opinion, if we may judge
from their language, has been adopted by many, and even re-
cent, authors, though Ellis had previous to its promulgation:}:,
Fig. 20. Fig. 21.

and also shortly afterwards, demonstrated that there was not on-
ly no real resemblance, but such remarkable differences as
rendered the hypothesis altogether untenable. § The pith of

* Lin. Syst. 1289.

f Elcneli, p. 162. He seems, however, to have had his suspicions that the
theory was questionahle, for he adds — " Qiianquam diversissima corticis natura,
ejusdemque facilis a ligno separatio, siiggerere possent : hujus strata potius ex
depoi-ito intiis succo fieri, aut lignum, prout ossa animalium sanguineorum intra
periosteum, generari, augeri, durescere."'

t Coral. 65. Lin. Corresp.. i. 225. Phil. Trans, (an. 1776) abridg. xiii. 721.

§ What then could induce Blumenbach, so late as in 1825, to write thus?—
" The stems appear to be reallt/ vegetables (the woody nature of which in the
larger ones cnnnot be mistaken) incrusled with corals." — Man. of Nat. Hist.
Trans, p. '271-

ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA. 169

the Gorgonia is not continued, as in the tree, from the trunk
through the branches, but is interrupted at their origins by se-
veral intervening hxyers of fibres, so tliat they are rather, as it
were, inserted upon the stem than propagations of it ; the axis
possesses none of that curious complexity of structure, — of fibres,
of sap and air vessels and utricular cells, — which renders the wood
so beautiful an object under the microscope ; and lastly there
is between the bark and the crust of the zoophyte nothing but
contrasts and discrepancies.*

The axis of a Gorgonia, at least of our native species, resem-
bles a tree in this, that the stem always bears a certain propor-
tion in thickness to the size of the polypidom, being slender in
the small, and thicker in the larger specimens : it tapers from
the rock or dilated base, and becoming gradually more gracile
and attenuated, disappears at the extreme points of the branch-
es. It is covered throughout with the fleshy which is the same
in structure at all points, but thicker and more loaded with po-
lypes towards the ends of the branches than on the stem or
near their base, whence the former generally assume a cylindri-
cal form. This flesh when dry is earthy and friable, a consi-
derable proportion of carbonate of lime entering into its compo-
sition ; but in a recent state it is soft and fleshy, and excavated
with numerous cells for the lodgement of the polypes. When
a portion of a branch is macerated in a weak acid, the lime is
entirely removed, but the branch retains its original size and
figure, and shows the frame-work to be an irregular close tex-
ture of corneous fibres, the interstices of which had been pro-
bably filled in part with a gelatinous fluid. And this is much
the same structure that we find in the Alcvonium. The skin is
coriaceous, strengthened with calcareous particles, but the in-
terior off"ers a fibrous net-work containing a transparent jelly in
the squares, and permeated with a certain number of longitu-
dinal cartilaginous tubes. The soft part of Pennatula seems
more uniformly fleshy or gelatinous, and its polypes are placed
only on certain wings or appendages of the polypidom, but the
skin is also coriaceous, and has moreover in its substance a great
number of calcareous spicula placed parallel to one another, and
which must greatly add to its consistency and strength.

* Ellis and Soland. Zoophytes, 76 — 70.

170 ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA.

The polypes are placed in this external fleshy crust, which,
indeed, is but a continuation of their tunic, and serves as a
connecting medium to the whole assemblage. Their position
in it is marked by an orifice on the surface distinguished by its
being cut into eight rays in a starred fashion, and which open
when the superior portion of the body is forced outwards. *
This exsertile portion, in a state of expansion, resembles a cy-
lindrical bladder or nipple crowned with a fringe formed by the
eight short thick pectinated tentacula which encircle the
mouth. (Plate xxvi. Fig. 1.) Under this orifice we perceive
the stomach, readily distinguished through the transparent
parietes by its opacity, occupying the centre of the cylinder,
and itself of a cylindrical figure. The space between it and
the outer envelopes is divided into eight equal compartments
or cells by as many thin ligamentous septa, which, originat-
ing in the labial rim, between the bases of the tentacula, de-
scend through the cylinder, attached on the one side to the
inner tunic of the body, and on the other to the stomach, which
is by this means suspended and retained in its position. The
canals or cells formed by these septa communicate freely with
the tubulous tentacula above ; and they have a still wider com-
munication with the abdominal cavity underneath the stomach,
into which we may observe the septa are also continued for a
certain way, adhering still to the tunic, but free on their inner
edges, for now instead of septa, they form only the same num-
ber of plaits of more or less prominence and width. Attached
to them, and indeed forming a part of them, there are an equal
number of twisted somewhat glandular filaments, which, origi-
nating round a small aperture in the base of the stomach,
appear to be suspended in the cavity, gradually losing them-
selves in its depth. By most authors these have been mis-
taken for ovaries, -f- but though this assignation of function to

• See on this part of zoophytology Milne- Edwards Memoires " sur les Alcy-
ons" in Ann. des Sc Nat part. Zool. iv. p. 333, &c. an. 1835 : and in the 2de
edit, of Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. p. 465.

f Cuvier, Reg. Anim. iii. p. 309, 310, 319. Lamarck gives us Savigny's
opinion in the following passage : " Les huit intestins d'un Polype semblent de
deux sortes, car ils ne se ressemblent pas tou.s par la forme, ni vraisemhlable-
ment par les fonctions. Deux d'entre eux descendent distinctementj usque an
fond du corps du Polvpe, et n'arrivent a aucun ovaire. Les six autres, plus

3

ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA. 171

them is easily proved to be erroneous, their true office remains
conjectural. Milne-Edwards says they have great analogy with
the biliary vessels of insects ; and they probably secrete some
fluid subservient to digestion and to the more complete assimila-
tion of the food.

As already remarked the protrusile portion of the polype is
very delicate, the internal viscera being as it were enclosed in
a serous bladder so transparent as to permit a view of their dis-
position. This envelope is itself, however, composed of two
very thin membranes in intimate union : at the base of the
body the outer of these assumes a considerable thickness, and
in coalescing with that of the adjacent polypes, constitutes the
common cortical portion into which each animalcule retreats at
will by a process of invagination, which we have had occasion al-
ready to compare to that by which a snail shortens its horns. (PI.
xxvi. Fig.2.) In the greater number of the Asteroida this common
portion secretes carbonate of lime, which is deposited in the meshes
of its tissue either in granules or in crystalline spicula, and im-
parts more or less of consistency to the whole. The inner tunic
on the contrary continues unaltered, and prolonged within the
polypiferous mass, it lines the cell, the abdominal cavity, and
the longitudinal canals which permeate the mass, as well as the
very tine tubular net-work with which the spaces between these ca-
nals isoccupied, (Fig. 5.) for Milne- Ed wards has shewn that there
is a free communication between these parts through the medium
of numerous minute apertures perforated in the sides of the ab-
dominal cavity. * It is probably in this tenuous inner tunic that
the buds or gemmae by whose increase and evolution the polype-
mass is enlarged are generated, the shape and size of the mass
depending upon the manner, or pre-ordained fashion, in which
the buds are evolved, for in some, as in Pennatula, determinate
spots only have the appropriated organization ; while in others,
as in Alcyonium, the generative faculty appears to be undefined
and diffused. These buds are produced in the net -work of the
crust ; while the gemmules or ova by which the species is pro-
varies dans leur forme, selon les genres, paraissent s'arreter a. six grappes
de gemmules oviformcs qui imitcnt six ovaires." — Aiiim. s. Vert. ii. p. 4"5 — 7;
417.

♦ Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 46.3. 2de edit.

172 ZOOPHYTA ASTEROIDA.

pagated are the peculiar products of the Hning of the abdominal
cavity. The ova sometimes originate in its lamellae, sometimes
from the interspaces, and in other cases from the walls of the
permeating canals. In Pennatula we first detect them between
the membranes of the polypiferous pinnae ; in Alcyonium in the
cartilaginous canals which are traced through the polype-mass,
or in the abdominal sac sprouting from the plaits ; and in Gorgo-
nia, Cavolini informs us, they germinate in eight distinct " ova-
ria at the base of each polypus." They first appear like a
minute smooth wart which gradually rises up from the surface,
enlarging itself at the same time, and when a certain size has
been attained, the wart becomes constricted at its base, then
shortly pedicelled, and at lastit separates afree egg by the absorp-
tion ofthis retaining neckor umbilical cord. (Plate xxvi. Fig. 6.)
The eggs now at liberty to move, gradually approach the base
of the stomach, which, as already mentioned, is perforated with
an opening that can be made wider or closed by means of its
sphincter muscle. After several approaches and as many repul-
sions, the aperture at length allows the egg to pass through into
the stomach, whence it is ejected through the mouth into the
open sea. Professors Grant and Milne-Edwards have witnessed
this process in the Alcyonia, and the former also in the Penna-
tula and Virgularia ; but in the Gorgonia, according to Cavo-
lini, the ova pass upwards " through eight small oviducts," and
are discharged, by as many apertures, " between the bases of the
e\a\\i tentacula." *

The structure of the ova has been well described by Cavolini,
and more especially by Professor Grant. Before their detach-
ment they seem, in general, to be white, but when mature they
are almost always vividly coloured, globular, and apparently
smooth, but clothed, as the microscope shews, with short ciliae,
which by their vibration cause them to move to and fro as if
they were actuated by volition. They are membranous capsules
filled with a gelatinous matter composed of very minute transpa-
rent globules similar to those which compose almost all the soft
parts of animals, or like the sporules of the lower cryptogamic
plants. The investing capsule is soft and irritable, for during
their motions the ova are seen frequently to contract themselves

' Edin. Now I'hil. Jouiii. i. 15-2.

ZOOPMYTA ASTKROIDA. 173

and alter their form. " When placed under the microscope,"
says Professor Grant,* " and viewed by transmitted light, they
appeared as opaque spheres surrounded with a thin transparent
margin, which increased in thickness when the ova began to grow,
and such of the ova as lay in contact united and grew as one ovum.
A rapid current in the water immediately around each ovum,
drawing along with it all loose particles and floating animalcules,
was distinctly seen flowing with an equal velocity as in other ci-
liated ova, and a zone of very minute vibrating ciliae was per-
ceptible, surrounding the transparent margin of all the ova. The
progressive motion of the ova, always in a direction contrary to
that of the current created by their cilise, was very obvious,
though less rapid than in any other zoophyte in which I have
observed the same remarkable phenomenon. The specimen
suspended in a glass jar filled with pure sea- water I now brought
so close to the transparent side of the vessel, that I could ex-
amine through it, with the assistance of a powerful lens, and
without disturbing the animal, the motions and progress of the
groups of ova passing through the colourless bodies of the poly-
pi. To the naked eye at first sight all appeared motionless.
The deep vermilion hue of the small round ova, and the colour-
less transparency of the outer covering of the polypi, formed a
beautiful contrast with the pure white colour of the delicate
longitudinal folds, the central open canal, and the slender fila-
ments which wind down from its sides towards the clusters of
white ova at the base ; but the living phenomena discovered
within were even more admirable than the beautiful contrast of
colours, the elegant forms, and the exquisite structure of all the
parts. When observed with a lens the ova were seen to be in
constant motion, and quite free within the bodies of the polypi.
They moved themselves backwards and forwards, and frequent-
ly contracted their sides, as if irritated or capable of feeling. I
could observe none passing upwards between the stomach and
the sides of the polypi. They never assumed the appearance
of a string of beads inclosed in a narrow shut curved tube, as
represented by Spix, but swam freely in the water which dis-
tended the polypi, as figured by Ellis. Their motions in the

* Dr Grant's observations, quoted in tlif text, were made on Alcyonium di-
gitatum, but the generalities may be safely applied to the other families, agree-
ing as they do with the observations of Cavolini on Gorgonia.

174 ZOOPHYTA A STEROID A.

polypi, though circumscribed, were so incessant, that by watch-
ing attentively I could observe them with the naked eye, and
they became more conspicuous as the ova advanced to the open
base of the stomach. From their restlessness, as they approach-
ed that last passage which separates them from the sea, they
seemed to feel the impulse of a new element, which they were
impatient to enjoy, and by following the direction of that im-
pulse they appeared to find their way into the lower open extre-
mity of the stomach, w^ithout any organic arrangement to lead
them into that narrow canal. In their passage through the sto-
mach, which was effected very slowly, the spontaneous motions
of the ova were arrested, unless some imperceptible action of
their ciliae, or some contractions of their surface, might tend to
irritate the sides of that canal, and thus direct or hasten their
escape."

The native species referable to the Order are not well ascer-
tained. They are apparently few in number, but belong to
three distinct families.

Family I. PENNATULID.E.

Polype-mass free, pennated, carnous, the skin spicuUferous, the
axis hony, simple, continuous : Polypes arranged along the margin
of the pinna.

12. Pennatula. Polype-mass plumous.

13. ViRGULARiA. Polype-mass linear-elongate.

Family II. GORGONIADiE.
Polype-mass fixed, arborescent, the axis covered with a thick cre-
taceo-gelatinous celluliferous crust : Polypes scattered over the whole
surface.

14. GoRGONiA. Polype-mass arborescent with a horny continu-
ous flexible axis: " cells for the polypi sessile."

Family III. ALCYONIDiE.

Polype-mass fixed, coriaceous or somewhat carnous, without any
distinct axis hut strengthened by variously disposed calcareous or
siliceous spicula : polype-cells subcutaneous, scattered over the sur-
face.

15. Alcyonium. Polypes scattered over the whole surface : the
spicula calcareous.

16. Cydonium. Polype-mass tuberous : the spicula siliceous.

Fig. 2'2.

FAMILY IV. PENNATULID^.

12. Pennatula,* Linnaeus.
Character. Polype-mass free^ plumous^ the shaft suhcylin-
dricalf nahedbeneath, pennated above ; piniue two-ranked^ spread-
ing, flattened^ and poly piferous along the upper margin.

\. P. phosphorea, purplish-red, the base of the smooth stalk
pale ; rachis roughened with close set papilla and furrowed down
the middle ; pinnce close ; polype-cells uniserial, tubular, with
spinous apertures. Sir R. Sibbald.

Vignette, Fig. 22.

' Formed from Penna, a quill — which the species so remarkably resemble
that we may say in the words of Lamarck — " II semble, en effet, que la nature,
en formant ce corps animal compose, ait voulu copier la forme exterieure d'une
plume d'oiseau." — Anim. s. Vert. ii. 425.

176 Z. ASTEROIDA. Pennatula.

Penna niarina, Sib. Scot. ii. lib- teit. 28 P. rubra, Bohad. Anim.

Mar. 101, pi. 8. lig. 1-G Pennatula pLospliorea. Lin. Syst. 1332.

Ellis in PhU. Trans, liii. 420, pi. 19- fig. 1-5. Mull Zool. Dan.

prod. 255, no. 3075. Turi. Gmel. iv- 688. Wern. Mem. i. 565.

Tint. Brit. Faun. 217- Stew. Elem. ii. 450. Blumenb. Man. 274. Lam.

Anim. s. Vert. ii. 426. 2de edit. ii. 643. Citv. Reg. Anim. iii. 318.

Bosc, Vers, iii. 62, pi. 28, fig. 3, 4. (pessima) Flem. Brit. Anim. 507.

Stark, Elem. ii. 420. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 248, pi. 7-

Roget, Bridgew. Treat, i. 174, fig. 71, 72. (bad.) P. rubra, Pall.

Eleneh. 368 P. Britannica, Ellis and Suland. Zoopli. 61. La

Pennatule luisante, Blainv. Actinolog. 517.
Hab. Deep water. " Jt is found in great plenty sticking- to the
baits on the tishermen's lines, ronnd the coasts of this kingdom; es-
pecially when thty make use of muscles to bait their hooks. Great
numbers have been taken on the coast of Scotland, especially near
Aberdeen," Ellis. Frith of Forth. Jameson. Coast of Berwick-
shire, abundant, G. J

Our fishermen call this zoophyte the Cock's-comh, a name which
is not unapt, but less expressive of its general form than that of Sea-
pen conferred by naturalists. It is from two to four inches in length,
and of a uniform purplish-red colour, except at the tip or base of the
stalk, where it is pale orange-yellow. The skin is thickish, very
tough, and of curious structure, being composed of minute crystalline
cylinders, densely arranged in straight lines, and held together by a
firm gelatinous matter or membrane. These cylinders are about six
times their diameter in length, straight and even, or sometimes
slightly curved and bulged, closely compacted yet distinct, and of a
red colour, for the colour of the zoophyte is derived from them, and
they are accordingly less numerous where the purple is faint or de-
fective. They are apparently inorganic and calcareous, being dis-
solved, with effervescence, in the mineral acids.* Their form and ar-
rangement is the same in every part of the skin ; and the papillae on
the back of the rachis, as well as the polype-cells, are constructed of
them, but none can be detected in the subcutaneous uncoloured ge-
latinous flesh.

The stalk is hollow in the centime, and contains a long slender
bone, which is white, smooth, square, and tapered at each extremity

* Dr Coldstream, of Leith, on wbose observations I place a greater reliance
tban on my own, writes me tbus — " The spicula of the Pennatula appear to me
to be solid. I have examined them with high powers, after having exposed them
to a high temperature, and have not been able to see any evidence of a cavity
within ; — whether viewed with reflected or transmitted light they seemed to be
opaque. When connected with the body of the animal, they certainly seem to
be red, but a slight degree of heat is sufficient to bleach them."

4

Pknnatula. Z. ASTEROIDA. 177

to a fine point. It seems intended to stiffen the polypidom, but it
does not extend the whole length of the stalk, for before it reaches
either end, the point is bound down and bent backwards like a shep-
herd's crook. It consists, according to Sir E. Home, of phosphate
and carbonate of lime, making thus a near approach to the bone of
vertebrate animals. Lect. Comp. Anat. i. p. 59.

The papillae on the back of the rachis, and between the pinnae, are
disposed in close rows, and do not differ from the polype cells except
in size. The latter are placed along the upper margin of a flattened
fin ; they are tubular, and have the aperture armed with eight
spinous points, which are moveable, and contract and expand at the
will of the animated inmates. These are fleshy, white, provided with
eight rather long retractile tentacula beautifully ciliated on the inner
aspect with two series of short processes, and strengthened moreover
with crystalline spicula, there being a row of these up the stalk,
and a series of lesser ones to the lateral cilise. The mouth, in the
centre of the tentacula, is somewhat angular, bounded by a white H-
garaent, a process from which encircles the base of each tentaculum,
which thus seems to issue from an apei tui'e. The ova lie betvi^een
the membranes of the pinnae ; they are globular, of a yellowish co-
lour, and by a little pressure can be made to pass through the mouth.

Bohadsch says that the Pennatulae swim by means of their pinnae
which they use in the same manner that fishes do their fins. Ellis
says it " is an animal that swims freely about in the sea," " many of
them having a muscular motion as they swim along ;" and in ano-
tber place he tells us that these motions are effected by means of
the pinnules or feather-like fins, — " these are evidently designed by
nature to move the animal backward or forward in the sea, conse-
quently to do the office of fins." — Phil. Trans, abridg. xii. 42. Pal-
las adopted, with some reservation, J the opinion of Bohadsch ; but
Bosc, in an effort to be original, fancied that these remai'kable zoo-
phytes lay during the winter at the bottom, concealed among sea-
weed and in the crevices of rocks, while in summer they often swam
at the surface ! Cuvier tells us that they have the power of moving
by the contractions of the fleshy part of the polypidom, and also by
the combined action of its polypes ; and, to adopt the words of Dr
Grant, " a more singular and beautiful spectacle could scarcely be con-
ceived, than that of a deep purple Pen. phosphorea, with all its deli-
cate transparent polypi expanded and emitting their usual brilliant
phosphorescent light, sailing through the still and dark abyss by the

• Misc. Zool. p. 177.

178 Z. ASTEROIDA. Pennatula.

regular and synchronous pulsations of the minute fringed arms of the
whole polypi." And Bohadsch asserts that he has been a witness of
this spectacle. " Deget nostrum Zoophyton in altiori mari, ubi in-
terdum cum aliis piscibus capitur. Dum versus maris supei'ficiem
fertur, buUulae innumerae corpus ejus circumdant, quae stellarum instar
de die splendent ; id quidem non hac occasione, sed anno 1749, dum
Liburno Marsiliam versus per mare proficiscerer, observavi. Quo
tempore in historia naturali minime versatus corpus bullulis nitens ad
quatuor circiter pedes infra superficiem maris conspiciens e nautis
quaesivi, quidnam rei esset ? qui Pennam esse pro responso dedere."
An. Mar. p. 107 — Linnaeus had thei'efore some grounds for inserting
the " phosphox'escent Sea- Pens, which cover the bottom of the ocean,
and there cast so strong a light, that it is easy to count the fishes and
worms of various kinds sporting among them" — amongst the most
memorable productions in Nature, See Smith's Tracts relating to
Nat. History, p. 43. But some authors, as Lamarck and Schweigger,
reasoning from what is known regarding other compound animals,
have denied the existence of this great locomotive power in a zoo-
phyte placed so low in the scale, as contrary to every analogy, and
not necessary to the existence or wants of the animal. And there
is little doubt these naturalists are right, for, when placed in a basin
or plate of sea-water, the Fennatulae are never observed to change
their position, but they remain on the same spot, and lie with the
same side up or down just as they have been put in. They inflate
the body until it becomes in a considerable degree transparent, and
only streaked with interrupted lines of red ; they distend it more at
one place and contract it at another ; they spread out the pinnae, and
the polypes expand their tentacula, but still they never attempt to
swim or perform any effort towards locomotion. Our fishermen
believe that they are fixed at the bottom with their ends immersed in
the mud, and the paleness of the base, when viewed in connection
with the preceding observations, go far, in my opinion, to prove this
statement to be correct. " Si les pennatules nagent aussi," says
Blainville, " ce dont je doute un peu, quoiqu'elles rampent tres-lente-
ment, c'est peut-etre en chassant le fluide qui est entre dans leur
systeme acquifere, plutot qu'a I'aide des pinnules polypiferes." — Ac-
tinolog. p. 83.

As the name imports, this Pennatula is a phosphorescent animal,
but the light, of a faint blue colour, is emitted only under circum-
stances that tend to shew that the polypes have felt some painful ir.
ritation which they would drive away by the dread influence of their
tiny lamps. I have repeatedly kept living specimens for several days

ViRGULAKiA. Z. ASTEROIDA. 179

in sea water, and have observed them at all hours, without once de-
tecting them in a vohintary emission of the fiame. It proceeds solely
from the polypes themselves, and can only be elicited by mechanical
irritations, which have no sooner ceased than the phosphorescence
declines and dies away.

" Spangling the waves with lights as vain
As pleasures in this vale of pain,
That dazzle as they fade."

Sir W.Scott.

13. ViRGULARiA,* Lamarck.
Character. — Polype-mass free-, linear-elongate, " support-
ing, towards the upper extremity, sessile lunate lobes embracing
the stem obliquely, and bearing a row of cells on their margin."

1. V. uiKXBii.is, stem filiform, with alternate lobes transverse^
ly ridgedr Mr Simmons, f

Plate XXIV.
Pennatiila mirabilis, Lin. Syst. 1322. Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 255, no-
307-t — Zool. Dan. tab. 11, fig. 1-3. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 63.
Sowerhy, Brit. Misc. 51, pi. 25. Turt. Brit. Faun. 217. Jameson in

Wern. Mem. i. 565. Stew. Elem. ii, 450. Bosc, Vers, iii. 62

Virgularia mirabilis, Lam. Anim. s. vert- ii. 430, 2de edit. ii. 647. Flem.
Brit. Anim. 507. Grant in Edin. Joiirn. of Science, no. 14. Stark,

Elem. ii. 420. Scirpearia mirabilis, Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix.

470 La Virgulaire aailes laches, £laitiv. Actinol. 514, pi. 90, fig. 3.

Hab. Dredged up by Mr Simmons off Inch-Keith, Sowerhy. Pres-
tonpans Bay, Jameson. " On the east and north coast of Scotland,
where it is believed by the fishermen to have one end lodged erect in
the mud ; in Zetland it is called the Sea-rush," Fleming. Dredged
up in Belfast Lough, Templeton.

" Seems to represent a quill stripped of its feathers. The base
looks like a pen in this as in the other species, swelling a little from
the end, and then tapering. The upper part is thicker, with alter-
nate semicircular pectinated swellings, larger towards the middle, ta-
pering upwards, and terminating in a thin bony substance, which

passes through the whole." Soiverby. " From 6 to 10 inches

in length." " They perfectly correspond in form and external ap-
pearance with the elegant coloured figure given by INIuller. Their
axis is calcareous, sohd, white, brittle, flexible, cylindrical, of equal

* Formed from Virgiila, the diminutive of Virga — a rod.
f " A young man who has since fallen a sacrifice to his zeal for Natural His-
tory in the West Indies." — Leach- He was, I believe, a native of Edinburgh.

180 Z. ASTEROIDA. Virgularia.

thickness throughout, and exhibits no mark of attachment at either
end. When broken, it exhibits a radiated surface, like the broken
spine of an echinus. The axis appears to have little connection with
the fleshy part, and to consist of concentric layers deposited by the
soft parts surrounding- it. When a portion of the axis is broken off
from either extremity, the animal retracts at that part, so as con-
tinually to expose a fresh naked portion of the axis : hence we can
take out the axis entirely from its soft sheath, and we always find
the lower pinnae of the animal drawn up closely together, as if
by the frequent breaking of the base. These very delicate and brit-
tle animals seem to be confined to a small circumscribed part of the
coast which has a considerable depth and a muddy bottom, and the
fishermen accustomed to dredge at that place believe, from the clean-
ness of the Virgularise when brought to the surface, that they stand
erect at the bottom with one end fixed in the mud or clay. Mul-
ler's specimens were likewise found on a part of the Norwegian coast
with a muddy bottom. The Polypi, much resembling those of the
common Lobularia digitata, are long, cylindrical, transparent, marked
with longitudinal white lines, and have eight tentacula which pre-
sent long slender transparent filaments or cilise on each of the lateral
surfaces when fully expanded. The polypi are easily perceived ex-
tending through the lateral expansions or pinnae, to near the solid
axis, where we observe two transverse rows of small round white ova
placed under each pinna, and contained within the fleshy substance.
These ova appear to pass along the pinnae, to be discharged through
the polypi, as in the Lobularia, Gorgonia, Caryophyllea, Alcyonia,
&c." Grant.

The figures in our plate were drawn from specimens with which
I was favoured by Dr Coldstream, and which had been preserved for
some time in spirits ; but to shew the difference between the animal
in this contracted condition and when alive, I have placed beside
them Figures 5 and 6, copied from Muller. The dissimilarity between
figures taken in these diff"erent states has rendered the synonymy of
the species perplexed and almost inextricable. According to Cuvier,
Lamarck, and Blainville, the species delineated by Muller, and which
is certainly identical with the British one, is not synonymous with
the Linnaean ; but this opinion rests solely upon the circumstance
of Linnaeus having quoted a figure in the " Mus. Ad. Fr." — belong-
ing confessedly to another Zoophyte — as a representative of the spe-
cies he intended, which may have been done from the then un-
certainty of the limits of the species, or from having seen specimens
in spirits only. His character is verv applicable to our animal, —

ViRGULARlA.

Z. ASTEROIDA.

181

" P. stirpe Jiliformi, rachi distiche pennata : pinnis lunatis remotis
alternis ;" and the habitat " m O. Norvegico," seems to confirm
the reference.

Virgularia differs from Pennatula remarkably in this that no spi-
cula enter into the composition of its soft parts. The polypiferous
pinnules are secund, leaving- the posterior part naked, and this is
marked with a deep furrow extending- from one end to the other,
dividing the polypidom into two symmetrical halves.

Fig. 24.

Fig, 25.

FAMILY V. GORGONIAD^.

14. GoRGONiA,* Linnaeus.
Character. — Polype-mass rooted^ arborescent, consisting of a
central axis barked with a polypiferous crust : the axis horny,
continuous and flexible, branched in coequality icith the polype-
mass : the crust when recent soft and fleshy, ivhen dried porous
and friable : the orifices of the polype-cells more or less protube-
rant.

1. G. VERRUCOSA, much and irregularly branched, the branch-
es spreading laterally, cylindrical, flexuous, barked when dry
loith a lohite icarted crust : segments of the cells unequal, obtuse.

Cole, t

Plate XXV. Fig. 1.
Frutex marinus flabelliformis, Rail, Hist. Plant, iii- 7. Sir H. Sloane in

Phil. Trans, abridg. (an. 1746) ix. 198, pi. 4, fig. 4. Keratophyton

flabelliforme, cortice verrucosa obductum, Eaii, Syn. 32. Erica ma-
rina alba frutescens, Petiv. Mus. cent. prim. 9, no. 50. Warted Sea-
fan, Borl. Cornw. 238, tab. 24, fig. 1 Gorgonia verrucosa, Lin.

Syst. 1291. Pall. Elench. 196. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 89- Turt.

• From Gorgon — the name of a daughter of Phorcys, whose locks of hair
were changed into serpents by Minerva.

f Ray, in his Historia, mentions Mr, afterwards Dr, Cole of Bristol as the
finder of this zoophyte on the coast of Cornwall. Cole is well known to natu-
ralists by his ingenious enquiry into the purple liquor of the Purpura lapillus.

GoRGONiA. Z. ASTEROIDA. 183

C.mel. iv. 648- Turt. Brit Faun. 206. Cavol. Polyp, mar. 29, tav.
1, Hg. 1-11, and tav. 4, fig. 1-16. Lam- Anim. s. Vert. ii. 315. 2de
edit. ii. 491. Bosc, Vers, iii. 36. Lamarck in Mem. du Mus. ii. 82.
Corall. 207. Stew. Elem. ii. 430. Flem. Brit. Anim. 512- Risso,

I'Europ. Merid. v. 327 Gorg. viniinalis, Soiver- Brit. Misc. 81, pi.

40. Jameson iii Wern. Mem. i. 560. Turt. Brit. Faun. 206 La

G. verruqueuse, Blainv. Actinol. 505, pi. 87, fig. 3.

Hah. Deep water. " Mount's Bay in Cornwall," 3h' Batten.
Plentiful on the Devonshire coast, Montagu. Said by Dr Walker
to occur in Scotland, Jameson. " I have also received it from Scot-
land," Sowerhy.

Polype-mass more than 12 inches in height, and 15 or 16 in
breadth, fixed to rocks by a broad circular fibro-corneous disk,
shrub-like, branched from near the base, the branches expanded la-
terally, cylindrical, erect or erecto-patent, warty. Axis black, smooth
and somewhat glossy, round or a little compressed, compact and cor-
neous, with a snow-white pith in the centre, irregularly cellular and
very like the pith of a rush ; near the extremities of the branches
the axis appears to be a single tube striated longitudinally, but this
appeai-ance is produced by drying, for when steeped in water the
striae are removed ; it is often bulged or knotted at uncertain inter-
vals, but no pores can be detected in its parietes. Crust white, cre-
taceous, friable, warted with numerous polype-cells and wrinkled in
the small spaces between them ; thickest towards the ends of the
branches which it covers over. Cells partly filled with a yellowish fi-
brous substance being the remains of the polypes, their orifices clos-
ed with eight converging obtuse small segments, one of which is so
much larger than the others as to occupy a half or a third of the whole
circumference.

2. G. PLACOMUS, irregularly branched, the branches disposed
in a dichotomous order and a Jlattish form, cylindrical, warty ;
cells protuberant, conical, surrounded at top by little spines. Ellis.

Plate XXV. Fig. 2.

Warted Sea-fan, £//is, Corall. 67. no. 1. t. 27. fig. a, A. 1, 2, 3 Gor-

gonia placomus. Pall. Elench. 201. Lin. Syst. 1290. Mull Zool. Dan.
prod. 254. no. 3061. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 86. Turt. Gmel. iv.
649. Lamarck in Mem. du Mus. ii. 83. Turt. Br. Faun. 206. Berk.
Syn. i. 212. Lam. Anim, Vert. ii. 316. 2de edit. ii. 492. Bose, Vers, iii.
31. Corall. 207. Stew. Elem.ii. p. 430. Flem. Brit. Anim. 512. La
G. plac'ome, Blainv. Actinolog. 505.

Hah. Coast of Cornwall, Ellis.

184 Z. ASTEROIDA. Gorgonia.

" This Sea- Fan is of a reddish brown colour ;" " has its branches
disposed in a dichotomons order and a flattish form ; they bend irre-
gularly towards one another, but rarely unite. Their mouths are co-
nical, project, and are surrounded at top by little spines. The bone
or support is nearly of the substance of wood." Ellis.

3. G. ANCEPS, branched, suhdichotomous ; branches with the
jieshfiat on each side, with a row of little mouths along both the
margins. Mr Dale. *

Plate XXV. Fig. 3.
Keratophyton dichotomum ; caule et ramulis leviter compressis, Rail, Syn.

.32 Sea Willow, Ellis, Corall. 68. no. 2, tab. 27, fig. g Gorgonia

anceps, Pall. Elench. 183. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 89. Berk. Syn.

i. 212. Lin. Syst. 1292. Turt. Br. Faun. 206. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

ii. 317. 2de edit. ii. 494. Lamour. Cor. Flex. p. 395. Turt. Gmel. iv.

649. Bosc, Vers, iii. 37. Lamarck in Mem. du Mus. ii. 84. Corall.

200. Stew. Elem. ii. p. 430. Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 512. La Gorgone

gladiee, Blainv. Actinol. 505.

Hab. Deep water, very rare. Found by Mr Dale growing near

Margate, Dillenius. Now and then found on the coast of Great

Britain and Ireland ; but not frequently, Ellis.

" This Gorgon is branched nearly in a subdivided manner." " The
bone is roundish, and small at the ends, of a horny nature, inclining
to leather." Specimens recent from the sea " are of a fine violet co-
lour ; but when we receive them, some are yellow, others white."
Ellis. The claims of this species to be considered a British native
are doubtful.

The following species, referable to this family, have been indicat-
ed as British, but neither figures nor descriptions of any of them, de-
rived from native specimens, have been as yet published :

Gorgonia Flabellum, ^^ grows inform of a net, with its
branches compressed inwardly : the flesh is yellow, sometimes pur-

• " Samuel Dale, Medicus et Pharmacopoeus vicinus et familiaris noster,
Bantriae in Essexia degens," one of the four botanists to whom Ray acknowledges
his greatest obligations in the compilation of his " Historia Plantarum." Praf.
1686 — He died in 1739, at. 80. Petiver aflfectionately styles him " my very
kind friend," and " our curious brother." — In the latter peiiod of his life he set-
tled as a physician at Bocking. He is the author of a " Pharmacologia," and
of a History of Harwich, — both works of merit, and once of repute. See Pul-
teney's Sketches, Vol. ii. p. 122-8- Pulteney says he was a F. R. S., but I do
not find his name in the list of Fellows given by Dr Thomson.

GoRGONiA. Z. ASTEROIDA. 185

ple^ with stnall mouths placed irregularhj, having polypes with
eight tentacles : the hone is black, horny, and slightly striated on
the large branches.""

Vignette, No. 19, Page 161.
Flabellum Veneris, Ellis, Corall. 61. pi. 26. fig. A— M. (foreign). Borl.

Cornw. 238 Gorgonia Flabellum, Lin. Syst. 1298. Mull. Zool.

Dan. prod. 253. Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 92- Berk. Syn. i. 212.

Turt. Grael. iv. 651. Turt. Brit. Faun. 206. Jameson m Wern. Mem.

i. 561. F/e/n. Brit. Anim. 511.

Hah. " The Flabellum veneris has been found on the shores of

Mount's Bay after a storm, but whether from a wrecked vessel, or

torn off by the violence of the waves from some rock in the Bay, is

not to be asserted positively," Borlasse. " Leith Shore, found by

the late Mr Mackay," Jameson, " Mr Neill informs me that he saw

Mr Mackay's specimen shortly after it was found, and that it had

all the aspect of being fresh and recent," Fleming.

Gorgonia lepadifera, " this Gorgon is dichotomous : it is
almost covered ivith mouths, which are placed close together, hang-
ing over one another ; they are bell-shaped, bent doivnicards, and
full of small scales : the flesh is covered with minute whitish scales.
The bone in the larger branches is testaceous, or rather like bone,

and in the smaller ones horny ^

Gorgonia lepadifera, Lin. Syst- 1289. Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 254. Ellis
in Phil. Trans, abridg. xiii. 728, pi. 12, fig. 12. Ellis and Soland. Zooph.

84. tab. 13, fig. 1, 2. Wern. Mem. i. 560. Stew. Elem. ii. 430

Primnoa lepadifera, Flem. Brit Anim. 513.
Hab. " Found on the coast of Aberdeenshire, and coasts of Shet-
land islands," Jameson.

Isis HiPPURis, " has a jointed stony stem, which rises into
many loose branches. The bone or support of the animal consists
oj white, cylindrical, stony, channelled joints, connected together
by black contracted horny intermediate ones. The flesh is lohit-
ish, plump and full of minute vessels ; the surface of it is full of
the little mouths of the cells, which are disposed in a quincunx
order, covering the polypes with eight claws."

Isis Hippuris, Lin. Syst. 1287- Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 105, tab. 3, fig.
1 — 5. Jameson in Wern. Mem. i. 560. Stew. Elem. ii. 429. Stark,
Elem. ii. 427, pi. 8. fig. 7, 8-
Hab. " Said by the late Dr Walker to occur on the east coast of
Scotland, and also in the Orkney islands," Jameson.

186

Z. ASTEROIDA.

Isis,

Drayton, in the Poly-olbion, mentions the Isis as a product of
Portland isle, but his Isis is probably the Corallina officinalis. I glad-
ly quote the lines :

" Upon whose moisted skirt, with sea-weed fring'd about.
The bastard coral breeds, that, drawn out of the brack,
A brittle stalk becomes, from greenish tum'd to black ;
Which th' ancients for the love that they to Isis bare
(Their goddess most ador'd) have sacred for her hair.
Of which the Naiads and the blue Nereids make
Them taudries for their necks : when sporting in the lake,
They to their secret bowers the sea-gods entertain."

Song 2.

The Isis Entrochus of Turt. Brit. Faun. 206, is a fossil species
of Pentacrinus.

Fig. 26.

OrA OF THE GORGONIA.

Fig, 11.

FAMILY VI. ALCYONID^.

14. Alcyonium,* Linnaeus.
Character. — Polype-mass lohed or incrusting^ spongious, the

♦ From Alcyon — the King's-fisher : the word itself signifies " sea-foam" of
wbich the Halcyons were supposed to make their nests. See Lib- Entert-
Knowl- " The Architecture of Birds ;" p. 45, &c.

" And every thing dispos'd it to my rest,

" As on the seas when th' Halcyon builds her nest.

" When those rough waves, which late with fury rush'd,

" Slide smoothly on, and suddenly are hush'd :

" Nor Neptune lets his surges out so long,

" As nature is in bringing forth her young."

Drayton's Heroical Epistles.
To the reasons adduced by Milne- Edwards for retaining the name Alcyonium
to this group, I would add that Lohularia is inadmissible, having been preoc-
cupied by the botanists. The Alcyonium of Lamarck is composed of certain
sponges, of which the true character remains unknown.

188 Z. ASTEROIDA. Alcyonium.

skin coriaceous, marked with stellated pores ; interior gelatinous,
netted icith tubular fibres and -perforated loith longitudinal ca-
nals terminating in the polype-cells, ichich are subcutaneous and
scattered. Polypes exsertile.

1. A. DiGiTATUM, polymorphous, greyish-xchite or orange-co-
loured, the skin someiohat wrinkled, studded over with stellated
pores even tvitk the surface. Dillenius.

Plates XXVI. and XXVI*.

Alcyonium ramosa-digitatuni molle, astericis undiquaque oniatum. Raii,
Syn. 31, no. 2. Breynius in Ephemerid. Acad. Leopold, cent. 8, app.

\ 59. Bast. Opus. Sub. i. 24. tab. 3. fig. 6, 7. pessima Main de mer,

Jussieu in Mem. Acad. Roy. des. Sc. an. 1742, 294, tab. 9, fig. 1

Dead Man's hand or Dead Man's toes, Ellis, Corall. 83, no. 2, pi. .32, fig.

a, A. A. 2. Alcyonium manus marina, Ellis in Phil. Trans, liii. 431.

tab. 20, fig. 10—13 A. digitatum, Ztn. Syst. 1294. Mull. Zool.

Dan. prod. 255, no. 3078. Fabric. Faun. Groenl. 447. Ellis and Soland.
Zooph. 175, pi. 1, fig. 7. Berk. Syn. i. 212. Turt. Gmel. iv. 652.
Jameson in Wern. Mem. i. 563. Turt. Brit. Faun. 207. Stew. Elem.
ii. 431. Bosc, Vers, iii. 156, pi. 30, fig. 4, 5. Fleming in Edin. Phil.
Journ. ix. 251. Cuv. Reg. Anim. iii. 321. Hogg's Stock. 38. Tem-
pleton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 470. Harvey in ibid, new series, i. 475,

fig. 56. 57, (very inacciu-ate) Ale. lobatum. Pall. Elench. 351.

Lamour. Cor. Flex. 336, pi. 12, fig. 4, and pi. 13, fig. omn. Corall. 243,

pi. 12, fig. 4 ; pi. 13, and pi. 14, fig. 1 Lobularia digitata, Lain.

Anim. s. Vert. ii. 413. 2de edit. ii. 631. Flem. Brit. Anim. 515. Grant
in Edin. Joura. of Science, no. 15. Stark, Elem. ii. 421. Johnston in
Trans. Newc Soc. ii. 250, pi. 8. Roget, Bridgvv. Treat, i. 162, fig.

56. Le Lobulaire digite, Blainv. Actinol. 521.

Hah. On stones, old shells, &c. in deep water.
This is one of our most common marine productions, so that, on
many parts of the coast, scai'ce a shell or stone can be dredged from
the deep that does not serve as a support to one or more specimens.
It appears often in the form of a mere crust about the eighth of an
inch in thickness when removed from the sea and in a state of con-
striction, but more commonly it rises \ip in conoid masses of vari-
ous sizes and lobed in a very irregular manner. Sometimes the
polypidom is a simple obtuse process, very much resembling the
teat of a cow's udder, whence our fishermen have happily named it
Coivs-paps : other polypidoms are more or less divided into finger-
like lobes, and assume figures that have suggested the names of Dead
Man's toes or Dead Man's hands. The outer skin is tough and
coriaceous, studded all over with stellate figures which, if attentively

4

Alcyonium. Z. ASTEROIDA. 189

examined, are seen to be divided into eight rays, indicating the num-
ber of the tentacula of the polypes, which issue hei'e. The body of
the polypes is as it were enclosed in a transparent vesicular mem-
brane, dotted with many minute calcareous grains, and marked with
eight white longitudinal lines or septa which, stretching between the
membrane and the centi'al stomach, divide the intermediate space in-
to an equal number of compartments. These lines not only extend
to the base of the tentacula, but run across the oral disk, and termi-
nate in the central mouth. The tentacula are short, obtuse, ciliated
on the margins, and strengthened at their roots by numerous linear
straight crystalline spicula. From the base of the white longitudi-
nal lines an equal, number of white tortuous glandular filaments de-
pend, hanging loose in an abdominal cavity placed underneath the
fleshy cylindrical stomach, and continuous with the aquiferous canals.*
The Polype-cells are oval, placed just under the skin, and are the ter-
minations of the long aquiferous canals which run through the whole
polypidom. These canals divide in their course into branches that
diverge towards the circumference where they dilate into the cells ;
they have strong cartilaginous, perhaps muscular, coats ; and are fil-
led with a much less consistent matter than that of the body of the
polype itself. It appears, from this disposition of the tubes, that many
polypes communicate together and form a compound animal, but that
all the polypes of the same polypidom do not communicate directly
by their medium. The space between the tubes is occupied by a
loose fibrous net-work, and the threads being a little more crowded at
particular places, they form lozenge-shaped compartments within which
are smaller meshes ; and the interstices of the whole are filled with a
transparent gelatine, in which numerous crystalline irregular spicula
lie immersed. These spicula are mostly in the form of a cross and
toothed on the sides, but they have no organic connection either with
the reticular fibres or with the tubes : they are calcareous, for if a
portion of the zoophyte is immersed in a mineral acid, a strong effer-
vescence immediately takes place, and spicula are no longer discernible.

* A classical friend on seeing the specimen from which our figure was taken
in full expansion, when it is translucent and permits a view of the interanea,
was reminded of the following lines :

" In liquidis translucet aquis ; ut eburnea si quis
" Signa tegat claro, vel Candida lilia, vitro."

" salientia viscera possis

" Et perlucentes numerare in pectore fibras."

Ovid. Met. vi. 354 and .390.

190 Z. ASTEROIDA. Alcyonium.

The ova are placed in tbe polype-tixbes ; they are white at first,
but ultimately become of a scarlet colour, opake, globular, and about
the size of a grain of sand. Each ovum is filled with a mass of ex-
tremely minute pellucid granules, and is ultimately discharged through
the mouth. They seem to be produced in spring and summer, for
in June and July I have seen many specimens with not more than
three or five polypes developed, and these are as large and perfect as
the polypes of the oldest specimens.

Dr Fleming is of opinion, that the Alcyonium lobatum of La-
mouroux, whose figure I have quoted without any mark of doubt, is a
perfectly distinct species, because its tentacula " are sub-cylindrical,
rounded at the extremity, and covered above and on the margin with
blunt tubercles;" whereas of the British Alcyonium "the tentacula
in Ellis's figures (and, having compared these with nature, we can
pronounce on their accm'acy,) are pinnate and pointed." But of
these figures of Ellis's, it may be observed that the one he has given
in his essay on Corallines * is very unlike the figure of the same
parts in his Nat. Hist, of Zoophytes ; and 1 must acknowledge that
neither of them correspond with what 1 have myself seen. When a
specimen of Alcyonium digitatum is placed in a vessel of sea-water,
the polypes protrude themselves amazingly, and extend their tenta-
cula, which are thick, obtuse, grooved along the centre, and not long-
er than the diameter of the oral disk, being in fact very like what
they are represented to be by Lamouroux ; but when these organs
are removed and slightly pressed between plates of glass, they be-
come so much elongated that 1 can readily believe they may, when
the animal is active and in its native site, assume the shape and ap-
pearance of Ellis's latter figure. And I am thus drawn to the con-
clusion that the differences in the different figures will not justify the
establishment of distinct species, but are to be attributed to the ani-
mal being- in different states when observed, — a conclusion which a
writer in the Encyclop. Method. Supp. p. 497, has also come to.
*' Les figures donnees par Ellis, Spix et Lamouroux ne se ressemblent
guire; je pense neammoins que cette difference ne peut etre rapportee
a aucune inexactitude, mais depend de I'etat du polype a I'instant ou
il a ete dessine."

The Alcyonium rubrum oi Mailer defined to be ^^ crust aceum,
molle, miniatmn, punctis sparsis saturatiorihus," — Zool. Dan. prod.
255, no. 3081, — is, moreover, surely nothing else but this species in
its primary crustaceous condition, and of a reddish-orange colour, as

* This figure it appears, was taken from specimens which had been immers-
ed in spirits. Introd. to Corall. p. xii.

Cydonium. Z. ASTEROIDA. 191

I have occasionally met with it. I have not seen the original figure,
but the copy of it given by Blainville, Man. d'Actinol. pi. 88, B,
fig. 7, does not diminish the strength of my suspicion, which, how-
ever, some may deem a very vague guess, when they observe that
it has been referred even to a diftereut genus, and forms the Ardhelia
rubra of the author just mentioned, Actinolog. p. 524 ; and the Sym-
podium 7'ubrum of Ehrenberg. Lam. Anira. s. Vert. 2de edit. ii. 625.

16. Cydonium,* Fleming.
Character. — " A coriaceous skin, internally carneous, with
numerous straight ridged spicida, perpendicular to the surface.
Polypi with a central opening, and an orifice at the base of each
of the eight pinnated tentacula"

1. C. MuLLERi, ^^ skin yelloivish, ivith numerous stellate pores ;
internally broivn." Jameson.

Alcyonium cydonium, " Mull. Zool. Dan. tab. 81, fig. 3, 4, 5-" Fabric-
Faun. Groenl. 448, no. 464. Javieson in Wern. Mem. i. 563. Stew.

Elem. ii. 432 Lobularia conoidea, Lam. Anim. s. vert. ii. 413

Cydonium Mullen, Flem. Brit. Anim. 516. Grant in Edin. New Phil.

Journ. i. 195 La Cydonie de Muller, JBlainv. Actinolog. 525, pi. 92.

fig. 2.
Hab. " Island of Fulah and Unst," Jameson.
" Base of adhesion narrow, body massive, surface irregular ; the
skin consists of animal matter cementing innumerable round siliceous
grains ; the cells leading from the stellate pores are indistinct ; the
spicula, which converge towards the centre, are fusiform, grouped in
small bundles, and many of them at the skin are tricuspidate. In a
dried specimen from Zetland, which I have had an opportunity of ex-
amining through the kindness of Professor Jameson, the surface is
slightly villous, owing probably to the contraction of the skin, leav-
ing the extremities of the fibres free. With the exception of the
stellate pores, it agrees with the Alcyonimn primum Dioscoridis of
Donati ( Adriat. 56. t. ix. f. 1.) in the villous skin and the simple and
tricuspidate spicula." — Fleming.

In the 2d edit, of Lamarck's Anim. s. Vert. ii. 632, I find it stated
that Ehrenberg considers the Alcyonium cydonium of Muller as
founded on a young individual of Alcyonium digitatum, of which, in-
deed, it has much the appearance ; but the zoophyte which Dr Flem-
ing has had in view, seems to be different.

* Cydonium — a quince, in allusion to the figure of the Zoophyte.

192 Z. ASTEROIDA.

In the " Annals of Natural History" for May 1838, Mr J. E.
Gray has inserted the following notice — " Miss AttersoU has lately
discovered, on the coast of Sussex, the Cornularia rugosa of
Cavolini, growing on a Tubularia, and has communicated specimens
of these interesting zoophytes to the British Museum. This genus
has hitherto been believed to be confined to the Mediterranean. It
diifers from most other horny zoophytes in the tentacles being pin-
nate like those of Gorgonia." V. i. p. 238.

To enable the student to identify this species— certainly among the
most singular of its order — I have given a copy of Cavolini's figure,
(Vignette, No. 27, p. 187) ; and it may be useful to add the generic cha-
racter : " Polyparium basi affixum, corneum ; surcuHs simplicibus, in-
fundibuliformibus, erectiusculis, polypum unicum singulis continenti-

bus. Polypi solitarii, terminales : ore tentaculis octo dentato-pinna-

tis, uniserialibus." Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 128, 2de edit.

On the eve of the preceding remarks being sent to press, I receiv-
ed from Mr J. E. Gray a specimen of the Cornularia from " Wey-
mouth." I agree entirely with this sagacious naturalist in his
opinion of the identity of the zoophyte with Cavolini's. In texture
it accords with Sertularia. The root-like fibre is filiform and tubu-
lar, creeping in a flexuous manner, along the stem of Tubularia indi-
visa, and putting out at irregular intervals, tubular vase-like cells from
two to three lines in height. The cells are smooth, with a narrow
base and a wide even aperture. (Fig. 23, a and b, p. 181.)

The examination of it has thrown new light on the Polypidom
described at p. 157, under the name of Campanularia dumosa. I have
there expressed my doubts as to the real position of that species,
and I had indeed a suspicion of its being an ascidian zoophyte allied
to the Vesicularia. Now, however, there can be little doubt that it

a Cornularia, probably identical with the C. rugosa, for its com-
paratively smaller size may depend on peculiarity of habitat. To
shew their similarity, 1 place a figure of it beside the other.
(Fig. 24, a, i. p. 181.)

IS

BRITISH ZOOPHYTES.

PART IV

ZOOPHYTA HeLIANTHOIDA.

Fig. 28.

0^

°*^^f^;^^'^-'i^

Css?

l#

'm^m^^Wj'^^/^'

■3

LUCERNARIA AURICULA-

in the waters we may see all creatures.

Even all that on the earth are to be found,

As if the world were in deep waters drown'd.

For seas have

As well as earth — Vines, Roses, Nettles, Melons,

Mushrooms, Pinks, Gilliflowers, and man}' millions

Of other plants, more rare, more strange than these,

As very lishes, living in the seas."

Du Bartas.
N

" Mihi firme persuadeo, eum, qui plantas marinas et insecta marina perscru-
tari velit, magna perfusum iri voluptate : est enim hie novus raicrocosmus,
cujus incolae parum innotuerunt, sed qui propter proprios propagandi modos, ri-
tus, oeconomiam, aliasque qualitates, attentione Naturae venatoris sunt dignissi-
mi." — J. Basterus.

" and made their beauties known,

" Not without moral compliment."

Crabbe.

" Still life was theirs, well pleasing to themselves,

" Nor yet unuseful, as my song shall show.

* * * * v

"_ — — _ — — All

" Life's needful functions, food, exertion, rest,

" By nice economy of Providence

" Were overruled to carry on the process,

" Which out of water brought forth solid rock."

Montgomerij.

ZOOPHYTA BRITANNICA.

ORDER III.
Z. HELIANTHOIDA.

Charactku.
Polypes separate or compound, free or attached, Jlosculous ; the
body regular tvith a circular periphery, contractile, internally
divided into numerous spaces by perpendicular muscular septa :
mouth superior and central, encircled ivith one or more series
of tubular tentacula : stomach membranous : anus : ovaries
and cceca placed in the septa between the stomach and skin.

Observations.
I borrow the name of this order from Latreille, * but give to
it a wider appUcation than it has in the classification of that il-
lustrious naturalist, that it may embrace the madrepores and
starred stones, which the observations of Le Sueur, confirmed
as they have been by subsequent voyagers, demonstrate to be
the products of zoophytes similar, in all essential points, to the
naked Actiniae. The order thus corresponds to the class
" Zoantha" of De Blainville, — a name which has the claim of
priority, and might have been adopted by me, had not its con-
junction with zoophyta appeared inappropriate, as involving a
tautology. The term preferred expresses the resemblance which
the animals it designates have to the compound or syngenesious
flowers, — a resemblance which has been very generally re-
marked, and the source of the name — Sea Anemonies — by which
the typical species are known in this country. When speaking
of these Ellis says, — " their tentacles, being disposed in regu-
lar circles, and tinged with a variety of bright lively colours,
very nearly represent the beautiful petals of some of our most

* Fam. du Rcgiic Animal, p. 535.

196 ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA.

elegantly fringed and radiated flowers, such as the Carnation,
Marygold, and Anemone." The language of Le Sueur in re-
spect of the tropical coral-bearing tribes is still warmer. The
little polypes of Porites astroides, when in blow, remind him of
a field enamelled with small flowers ; and of them in general
he says, — " Quand la mer est calme, c'est un spectacle admira-
ble que de voir les belles couleurs veloutees qu'ils e'talent : elles
imitent les tapis les plus riches et les plus varies. Pres d'eux
se montrent des gorgones et des serpules dont les houpes
blanches, jaunes et rouges, brillent de I'eclat le plus vif, et des
amphitrites qui elevent au-dessus de I'eau leur tete couronnee
de palmes enrichies des teintes les plus variees. Je ne pouvois
me lasser d'admirer avec quelle profusion ces animaux sont
groupes et enlaces : c'etoit a regret qu'apres m'etre promene
long-temps au milieu d'eux je me determinois a les arracher du
sein des eaux, et a en mettre des fragments dans un baquet, que
je faisois de suite transporter chez moi pour examiner a loisir
les animaux particuliers a chacun des polypiers." * — It is only,
however, when they lie with their upper disk expanded and
their tentacula displayed, that they solicit comparison with the
boasts of Flora, for when contracted the polypes of the madre-
pores conceal themselves in their calcareous cups, and the Ac-
tiniae hide their beauty, assuming the shape of an obtuse cone
or hemisphere of a fleshy consistence, or elongating themselves
into a sort of flabby cylinder that indicates a state of relaxation
and indolent repose.

The Actinia gemmacea is the only species which the anato-
mist has yet examined with care, f but it may safely be chosen as
the representative of its order, the probability being that the
deviations from its structure in the other species and genera are
only of secondary consequence. Of the species mentioned Mr
Teale has given a very elaborate anatomy, :}: more correct and
minute than any hitherto published, but the sketch to suit our
design, must be of a more general character.

* Memoires du Museum, Tom. vi. p. 272 and 287.

f M. Delle Chiaje has, it seems, anatomized several other species, but I have
no access to bis works. Bull. des. Sc. Nat. xvii. 470.

I " On the Anatomy of Actinia coriacea, by Thomas Pridgin Teale," in
Transactions of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Vol. i.

ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA. 197

The body of the Helianthokla may be compared to a trun-
cated cone or short cyHnder, seated on a flat plain base, while
the opposite end is dimpled in the centre with the oral aperture,
and garnished with variously figured tentacula which originate
from a space between the proper lip and the free somewhat
thickened border of the disk. In a state of contraction the
mouth is closed, the tentacula are shortened, and the whole
concealed by this border, being drawn like a curtain over them,
leaving a mere depression on the top. The mouth leads by a
very short and wide passage into a large stomach, which is a
membranous bag puckered internally with numerous plaits, and
divided in a perpendicular direction into two equal halves, by a
deep smooth furrow with cartilaginous sides, as was first remark-
ed by Reaumur.* There is no intestine, nor any other visible
exit from the stomach than the mouth, bv which the undigested
remains of the food are ejected, always enveloped in a large
quantity of a clear glairy fluid. But in a state of expansion and
of hunger, many kinds of Helianthoida can protrude the stomach
beyond the lip in the form of large bladder-like lobes, which
often hang over the sides and almost conceal the rest of the
body ; and amidst them there are very frequently extruded at
the same time some white filaments, like bundles of ravelled
thread, which have escaped either through a rupture, or a cir-
cular opening in the bottom of the stomachal membrane. The
space between the walls of this organ and the outer envelope is
divided into numerous narrow compartments by perpendicular
and parallel lamellae of a musculo-tendinous texture, which ex-
tend from the oral disk to the base, and radiate to the centre
like the gills of a mushroom to its stalk, — a comparison the more
exact as some only of the lamellae reach and touch the stomach,
the rest coming more or less short, and forming consequently
imperfect interseptal spaces. " The breadth of the leaflets va-

* " They (the furrows) are produced on each side by the firm adherence of
the gastric membrane to a i)air of very dense, fleshy, but narrow leaflets, through-
out their whole extent, or, in other words, from the top to the bottom of their
internal border. These depressions divide the animal into two lateral halves,
constituting a bilateral symmetry in Actinia, as has been observed by M. Agassiz

in other supposed radiated animals." Teale in loc. cit. 102 But in Actinia

Dianthus the channel or furrow exists on one side only.

198 ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA.

ries considerably, some extending scarcely a line from their ex-
ternal attachment, others reaching as far as the stomach, being
nearly half an inch in breadth. The height generally corre-
sponds with the height of the animal ; a few, however, of the
narrowest leaflets extending upwards from the base, terminate
obliquely in the sides, without being prolonged as high as to the
lip or roof."* These lamellae are of a muscular character, and
by their actions cause the body to assume its various forms. The
spaces between them are filled, 1st, with the ovaries attached, in
elongated masses, to the inner border of most of the leaflets ;
and 2dli/, with the " vermiform filaments" which, as already
mentioned, are often extruded at the mouth. These filaments
are capillary, greatly convoluted, smooth and of a white colour,
with a sort of mesentery extended along one side. Their ap-
pearance naturally suggests the idea of their being either the in-
testines or the oviducts of the creature, but they perform no
function of the kind ; and probably they are csecal, analogous
to the filaments which hang from the stomach of the asteroid
zoophytes. They have been often described as ovarian, even by
late authorsjf but Mr Teale has fully shewn the improbabihty,
if not the erroneousness of this opinion. He believes the fila-
ment to be tubular, though he acknowledges he has not been
able to obtain any evidence of the fact, and " under the micro-
scope it appears simply as a round, solid, translucent chord."
Such also has it always appeared to me, so that I can scarcely
hesitate to pronounce Dicquemare's description of its structure
to be altogether incorrect. " I have observed," he says, " that
there grows or comes out of their body and mouth a sort of
threads about the size of a horse-hair, which being examined with
a solar microscope of five inches diameter, appear as if made up

* Teale in Trans. Leeds' Soc. i. 96.

f " Entre ce sac interieuv (the stomach) et la peau exterieure, est une orga-
nisation assez compliquee, mais encore obscure, consistent surtout en feuillets
verticaux et fibreux, auxqiiels adherent les ovaires, semblables a des fils tres en-
tortilles." Cuvier, Reg. Anim. iii. p. 290. Delle Chiaje in Bull, des So. Nat.
xvii. 471. See also J. R. Jones in Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiol, ii. 409 —
Sharpey describes them as oviducts. Cyclop, cit. i. 614. Dicquemare had a
singular notion that they contained certain bulbs or buds " which open in time
and cleaving to the bodies on which these threads are extended, produce small
anemonies." Phil. Trans, abridg. xiii. 6.39.

ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA. 199

of a prodigious number of vessels, wherein a liquor is seen to
circulate. The largest of these unite together, much in the
same manner as the optic nerves do in man."*

The external envelope of the naked Hydroida is a thick firm
fleshy or coriaceous skin consisting of a corium and epidermis,
— the former layer constituting the chief organ of support, and
giving to the animal its peculiar form. " A circular horizontal
portion forms the base or foot ; a cylindrical vertical portion
constitutes the sides, and is inflected at the superior border, so
as to form a thick rounded lip. The corium is afterwards pro-
longed over the tentacula, ffivinof investment and form to these
organs, and is then extended horizontally to form the roof, near
the centre of which it again becomes folded upon itself, forming
an internal lip or mouth, at which part it is continuous with the
digestive sac." f — " The epidermis forms a thin layer of unor-
ganized matter spread over the whole extent of the corium, and
may be traced into the stomach. The external surface of the
epidermis is dense and membranous ; internally, when examin-
ed by the lens, it appears as a pulpy substance. Intimately in-
termixed with it, in irregular patches, and not constituting a dis-
tinct or separate layer, is a pigment varying in colour in different
parts of the same animal, and in diff"erent individuals. This
colouring matter is extensively distributed over the base, sides,
tentacula, and roof, but I have never observed any trace of it in
the stomach." I The surface is either smooth or studded over
with glandular warts, which, having an adhesive quality, enable
the creatures the more completely to conceal themselves by in-
duing the body with an extraneous coat formed of the sand,
gravel, and broken shells which lie around their peculiar locali-
ties. This is exchang'ed in the madrecolous tribes for the more
perfect defence which a hard coral affords, into which the soft
parts are withdrawn at will. " This coral is calcareous, and the
cells which are inhabited by the animals are furnished with more
or less distinct longitudinal lamellae, placed in a radiating posi-
tion round the central axis, so as to give the cavity a star-like
appearance." § Its structure is in fact a model cast in lime of
what may be called the skeleton of the Actiniae, — the parts on

» Phil. Trans, abridg. xiii. 6.39. t Teale in lib. supra cit. 93.

J Teale in loc. 95. § Gray in Synop. of British Museum, 70.

200 ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA.

which the support depends being converted into stone by a de-
position of calcareous matter in their texture, — the corium in
this manner becoming a sohd polypidom, and the muscular leaf-
lets partitions of limestone.*

When a Helianthoid Polype is at rest and unalarmed, it can
dilate the body to fully twice its ordinary bulk by imbibing water
through the mouth or tentacula,-f- the bases of which open in
the spaces between the perpendicular lamellae. These spaces
being filled, the water is then made to permeate the rim of
the oral disk, which is full of cavities and cells for its recep-
tion ; and the tentacula are in the same manner distended, the
water being forced into them from behind while the little open-
ing on their tips is held close. The whole animal is thus dis-
tended to a wonderful degree, and every organ stretched and
displayed;— the tentacula spread out in quest of prey, — the
skin rendered almost clear from very fulness ; and the stomach,
pushed beyond its natural bounds, lies over the sides in swol-
len diaphanous lobes. The water thus introduced is doubtless
subservient to the purposes of respiration, and to aid this, the
vermiform filaments, and the internal surface of the stomach
and tentacula are clothed with vibratile cilia, exciting and di-
recting currents over the surfaces.:}: Since too the contents of the
stomach must be fully exposed to the influence of the water, the

" " Dans cette classe d'animaux, le polypier ou la partie solide qui reste quaiid
le partie animale a ete dessechee et enlevee, est done une sorts de reseau calcaire
d"un tissu plus ou moins compacte, qui remplissoit les mailles, les vacuoles de
celle-ci. La proportion de ces deux parties est en rapport avec I'age du zoan-
thaire : plus il est jeune, plus il y a de matiere animale ; plus il est age, et plus
il y a de matiere inorganique : aussi la base de ces polypiers, le plus souvent
morte, est-elle fort dure, tandis que le sommet ou les bords essentiellement vi-
vans sont entierement mous." Blainville, Actinolog. 311 — See also Harvey in
Mag. Nat. Hist. n. s. 1. 474.

•f " It has not, so far as I know, been clearly shevra by which of the com-
municating orifices the water enters. Though I took considerable pains, I have
not been able satisfactorily to ascertain this point ; I may remark, however, that
I have repeatedly noticed water entering at the mouth." Sharpey in Cyclop.

Anat. and Phys. i. 614 Delle Chiaje asserts that it enters by the tentacula.

Bull, des Sc. Nat. xvii. 471. He adds, " II est curieux d'observer le courant
d'eau qui, lorsque T Actinic se relache, penetre par quelques tentacules, et des
qu'elle se contracte, sort par d'autres tentacules precisement opposes aux pre-
miers. Ce phenomene s'observe sur toutes les especesd'Actinies."
^ Sharpey in lib. cit. i. 614 — 15.

ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIUA. 201

nutrient parts may be by its means fitted for more immediate
assimilation, for as there is neither circulating nor lymphatic sys-
tems, the absorption of the nutrient fluids must be made direct-
ly from the stomach itself. By the contraction of the periphery
of the body, this water is again expelled at pleasure through the
tentacula in a continuous stream or in jets, and if the contrac-
tion is sudden and strong, the water may be thrown out with
such force as to rise to the height of at least a foot. It is re-
markable that the water does not escape from all or the great-
er number, but only from a few of the tentacula. Whether
any part escapes by the mouth is doubtful.

All the native species are single, viz. every individual is iso-
lated and complete in itself, and not organically associated with
others, as the polypes of the preceding orders are. They are
also all oviparous, the ova being generated in appropriated or-
gans. According to Spix the ova, in the Actinise, form several
grape-like clusters, situated in the interseptal spaces, with ducts
which open into the base of the stomach by several apertures,
and hence the ova are presumed to gain their freedom by tra-
versing the stomach and mouth.* Blainville doubts this, being
led from analogy to believe it more probable that the oviducts
may open in the labial rim, as they do in the asteroid zoo-
phvtes. -f- Delle Chiaje says that they terminate in the tentacula
of the Actiniae ;% and Cavolini states, that in the Caryophyllia
the ova are discharged through small distinct openings between
each of the tentacula.§ Their natural passage of egress may
be considered to be undetermined, but it seems to be ascertain-
ed that they do, under certain circumstances, escape from the
body sometimes through the tentacula, or in apertures between
them, and sometimes through the mouth. Mr Teale, after vainly
attempting to discover any proper oviduct, thinks it probable that
the ova, when sufficiently matured, " actually burst their mem-
branous envelope, and become lodged in the interseptal spaces
where they are exposed to the free access and continued sup-
plies of sea water, the grand stimulus to their further develope-

" Cams, Conip. Anat. Trans, ii. 308, pi. i. fig. x.

f Man. d'Actinologie, 79-

f Bull, des Sc. Nat. xvii. 471.

§ Edin. New Phil. Journ. i. 153.

202 ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA.

ment."* The supposition readily explains some facts which have
given rise to an opinion of their viviparous generation, for the
young will be born alive if the easy admission is made that some
of the ova may have their egress delayed until they have passed
through their first stages of evolution. That many ova, and pro-
bably by much the greater number, escape previously to this is
now well ascertained.

Mr Teale's description of the ovaries varies also from Spix's,
and is very accurate. In Actinia gemmacea he tells us they
form " elongated masses attached along the inner border of
most of the leaflets. Each ovary is composed of several hori-
zontal folds or plaits, which, when unfolded, show this structure
to be about three times the length it assumes when attached to
the leaflet. By carefully spreading out these folds, the ovary,
with the assistance of a lens, is seen to consist of two very de-
licate layers of membrane, enveloping a closely compacted layer
of ova. After enveloping the ova, the membranous layers are
placed in apposition, and form a kind of mesentery, by which
the ovary is attached to the internal border of the leaflet. The
two layers afterwards separate to pass one on each side of the
leaflet, thereby lining the interseptal spaces from which this
membranous investment is prolonged into the tentacula, as well
as into the cavities within the structure of the lip and mouth.
At the summits of the tentacula, and of the tubular eminences
of the lip, the membrane becomes continuous with the common
integument, whilst at the inferior part of the interseptal spaces
it is continuous with the digestive sac. The breadth of the
ovaries is nearly uniform from the top to the bottom. Some ir-
regularities are occasionally observed in their attachment to the
leaflets. Sometimes one leaflet supports two ovaries, and not
unfrequently two neighbouring ovaries are continuous with each
other at their inferior extremities." '\-

The period of propagation is probably, in most Helianthoida,
not limited to any particular season. According to the obser-
vations of Cavolini the Caryophyllia matures its ova in spring ;
and it is only at this season that I have found the Lucernarise on

* Leeds Phil, and Lit. Soc. Trans- i. IIL f Lib. supra cit. p. 104.

4

ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA. 203

our northern shores, when they are big with numerous eggs. But
in the Actini;e, ova in every state of developement may be seen
in the same individual throughout the year ; perhaps, however,
they are most abundantly laid in autumn. They are usually of
a roundish figure, and, like the gemmules of polypes in general,
contractile and motive, being carried about from the action of
the cilia that clothe the surface. " Under the microscope they
prove of diversified form, many resembling flattened pease, some
elongated or exhibiting irregular prominences, some almost
spherical, others as if composed of two or even of three un-
equal spheres, and some which cannot be referred to any par-
ticular figure." After moving about for several days, during
which their forms suffer some slight change, they insensibly
relax in their activity, the cilia disappear, and, having become
stationary, each rapidly runs through the stages of develope-
ment that lead it up to the similitude of its parent.

Every one has read of the coral islands of tropical seas ; how
they grow from the fathomless profound, and how they rise to
day by the operations of puny insects, which, in countless num-
bers, and in untold generations, effectuate changes on our globe
superior, perhaps, to what all other animals united do, and com-
pared to which the greatest achievements of " intellectual man,"
sink to insignificance.* Geology teaches us that with these
worms the great work of creation began ; and from that uncer-

* " Their plants are made of stone, and they build dwellings. Dwellings ; —
they construct islands and continents for the habitation of man. The labours
of a worm, which man can barely see, form mountains like the Apennines, and
regions to which Britain is as nothing. The invisible, insensible toil, of an ephe-
meral point, conspiring with others in one great design, working unseen, un-
heard, but for ever guided by one volition, by that One Volition which cannot
err, converts the liquid water into the solid rock, the deep ocean into dry land,
and extends the dominions of man, who sees it not and knows it not, over re-
gions which even his ships had scarcely traversed. This is the Great Pacific
Ocean ; destined, at some future day, to be a world. That same power which
has thus wrought by means which blind man would have despised as inadequate,
by means which he has but just discovered, here too shows the versatility, the
contrast of its resources. In one hour it lets loose the raging engines, not of
its wrath, but of its benevolence ; and the volcano and the earthquake lift up to
the clouds, the prop and foundation of new worlds, that from those clouds they
may draw down the sources of the river, the waters of fertility and plenty."
Dr Macculloch, Highlands and West. Islands, Vol. iv. p. 14.

204 ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA.

tain date even to the present day, their amazing labours have
been continued, the product remaining in the extensive ranges
of limestone rocks which lie buried in our northern regions, as
well as in those islands of new formation with which they threat-
en to convert the equatorial seas into dry land. " They that
sail on the sea tell of the danger thereof ; and when we hear it
with our ears we marvel thereat."*

" Millions of millions thus, from age to age,

With simplest skill, and toil unwearyable,

No moment and no movement unimproved,

Laid line on line, on terrace terrace spread.

To swell the heightening, brightening gradual mound,

By marvellous structure climbing tow'rd the day.

Each wrought alone, yet all together wrought,

Unconscious, not unworthy, instruments.

By which a hand invisible was rearing

A new creation in the secret deep.

Omnipotence wi'ought in them, with them, by them ;

Hence what Omnipotence alone could do

Worms did. I saw the living pile ascend,

The mausoleum of its architects.

Still dying upwards as their labours closed :

Slime the material, but the slime was tum'd

To adamant, by their petrific touch ;

Frail were their frames, ephemeral their lives,

Their masonry imperishable." f

By much the greater number of those wonder-working zoo-
phytes belong to this order. In former ages ihe geologist tells
us that they were numerous and varied in our seas, — their re-
mains, entombed in limestone and marble, constituting the mo-
dels by which he decyphers their forms and species ; but this
ancient host is now represented by two or three species only,
and these so small and rare, that it would be giving them a dis-
proportionate importance to make them more than the subject
of a passing allusion to the labours of their races.

The British species may be arranged under the following
genera ;

' Ecclesiast. chap, xliii. v. 24.

t IMontgomery's Pelican Island, canto ii. p. 27.

ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA.

205

Family I. MADREPHYLLIiEA.
Body cased icith a solid calcareous cupped polypidom, lamel-

lated internally.

17. TuRBiNOLiA. Polypidom turbinate, becoming free by age.

18. Caryophyllia. Polypidom cylindrical, always attached.

Family II. ACTINIID^.

Body naked^Jleshy, contractile^ locomotive.

19. Actinia. Body conoid or cylindrical ; the tentacula retractile.

20. Anthea. Body cylindrical ; the tentacula non-retractile.

21. Lucernaria. Body somewhat campanulate ; the tentacula
in tufts disposed at distant intervals round the margin.

Fig. 29.

Actinia viduata.

III. ZOOPHYTA HELIANTHOIDA.

FAMILY VII. MADREPHYLLI^A.

17. TuRBiNOLiA,* Lamarck.
Character. Animal like the Actinia, single : Polypidom
fixed token young, becoming detached in the progress of its growth,
simple, inversely conical, furrowed on the outside, pointed at the
base, and terminating above in a lamellated stellular cell.

\. T. BOREALis, " widely conical, slightly bent." Rev. Dr
Fleming.-|-

Fungia turbinata, Fleming in Wern. Mem- ii. 250. Turbinolia borealis,

Flem. Brit. Anim. 309 La Turbiiiolie boreale, Blainv. Actinolog. 341.

Hah. " Zetland," Fleming.

" This species occurred in the same boat in which I picked up the
Caryophyllea cyathus. Thoug-h greatly defaced, it still exhibits
proofs of its recent origin. It is inversely conical, pointed, subarcu-
ated, with a concave disc and a prominent centre ; the plates appear
to have been equal. It is about five-tenths of an inch in height, and
nearly the same in breadth across the star." Fleming.

Lamouroux maintains, in opposition to Lamarck, that the Turbino •
liae are fixed, and says that in well preserved specimens a distinct pedicle,
with the point broken ofi^, is obvious. J The fact seems to be, as stated

* From turbo, a top.

f The author of the " Philosophy of Zoology," and the " History of British
Animals." He, for many-years, discharged the duties of a minister of the Church
of Scotland ; and is now Professor of Natural Philosophy in King's College,
Aberdeen. To his labours and writings I am inclined to ascribe a considerable
share in diffusing that taste for natural history which is now abroad.

\ Soland, Zooph. new edit. p. 51.

CARyoiHYJ.LiA. Z. HELIANTHOIUA 207

by Mr J. E. Gray,* that they are fixed in their rirst stage of existence,
but become detached by age. Dr Fleming, to his description of the
species, adds, " From its shape, it appears probable, that it grows with
its base fixed in the sandy bottom of the sea, as Pallas formerly con-
jectured."

18. Caryophyllta, f Lamarck.
Character. Animal like the Actinia : Polypidom permanent-
ly Jixed^ simple^ cylindrical or conoid, striated externally in a lon-
gitudinal direction, the top holloiced into a lamellated stellular cup.

1. C. S'SUTHU, polypidom cylind7'ical ; lamelloi entire, arched,
faintly crenate, from 3 to 5 smaller ones beticeen the larger ;
centre tubercular. Rev. Dr Fleming.

Vignette, No. 30, page 206.
Caryophyllia cyathus, Fleming in Wern. Mem. ii. 249 ; and in Edin. New
Phil- Journ, viii. 70. Broderip in Ibid. viii. 312. Flem. Brit. Aiiim. 508.
— C. Sniitliii, Stokes and Broderip in Zool. Journ. iii. 486, pi. 13, fig.
1-6. and in Bull, des Sc. Nat. xvii. 157. Buckland, Bridgew. Treat, ii.
90, pi. 54 fig. 9-11. Harvey in Proc. Zool. Soe. 1834, part ii. 28 : and
in Mag. Nat. Hist. New Series, i. 474, fig. 5b-
Hah, " From deep water off Foulah, in Zetland," Fleming.
Southern coast of Devonshire, Thomas Smith, Esq. Cornwall,
Mr Coutch.

The Polypidom is firmly attached to the rock so as apparently to
make a part of it : it is cylindrical, whitish stained with brown, stri-
ated or finely grooved on the exterior, internally cupped and lamel-
lar. The lamellae are of three kinds, a larger and more prominent,
between every pair of which there are generally three, but sometimes
five lesser ones, of which the central one differs from the others in
being divided into two portions, the innermost half projecting beyond
the others towards the centre and forming an inner series. J All

* SjTi. of Brit. Museum, p. 70. See also in relation to this point Mr Stutch-
bury's observations on the growth of young Corals of the genus Fungia, in Lin.
Trans, xvi. p. 493.

f From KA^voy, anut, and<?i/X?iov,a leaf. — The name has been so generally re-
ceived that it might be difficult to substitute another for the genus, and yet it
is very objectionable. There is a Caryophyllceus amorg the intestinal worms ;
and the Caryophyllece are familiar to all botanists — The following generic cha-
racter of Caryophi/llia is given by Mr Stokes : " Polyparium simplex, basi
affixum. Corona lamini.s duplici serie dispositis, cxterioribus majoribus, re-
gulariter insequalibus, maximis inter seriei internie laminas interpositis. Dis-
cus lamellis erectis, prominulis foliatis."

\ Dr Fleming describes the plates thus -. " The lamellseare disposed in fours.

208 Z. HELIANTHOIDA. Caryophyjllia.

the lamellae are arched, entire, striated on the sides, whence the mar-
gin appears somewhat crenulate : they terminate about half across
leaving- a plain centre which is roug-h or tubercled. In one specimen
before me the primary lamellae are 14 in number ; in another they
are 20 ; but Dr Fleming gives about 40 as the number in his Zetland
specimen. Height from two-tenths to half an inch ; diameter three-
tenths to one inch.

My friend Dr Coldstream has furnished me with the following
account of the animal of this interesting zoophyte, which he watched
for several successive weeks during his residence at Torquay.
" When the soft parts," he writes, " are fully expanded, the appear-
ance of the whole animal resembles very closely that of an Actinia.
When shrunk they are almost entirely hid amongst the radiating
plates. The specimens I have seen have varied in size from three-
tenths to one inch in diameter, and from two-tenths to half an inch
in height. They are found pendant from large boulders of sandstone
just at low water-mark ; sometimes they are dredged from the mid-
dle of the bay. Their colour varies considerably ; I have seen the
soft parts white, yellowish, orange- brown, reddish, and of a fine apple
green. The tentacula are usually paler. During expansion, the
soft parts rise above the level of the calcareous disc to about twice
its height. The tentacula are pushed forth very slowly, but some-
times are as long as the whole height of the body. They are ter-
minated by a rounded head. * The mouth has the appearance of an
elongated slit in the centre of the disc : it is prominent, and the
lips are marked with transverse striae of a white colour. When a
solid body is brought into contact gently with the tentacles they ad-
here pretty strongly to it, just as the Actiniae do ; but when they
are rudely touched, they contract very quickly, and if the irritation

and may be distinguished into three different kinds. The first are the highest
and the broadest at the margin, but as they descend into the disc they become
narrower before they join the central plate. The second kind are narrower
than the preceding at the margin, but towards the middle they suddenly enlarge
and join the middle plate. The third kind are the smallest and terminate be-
fore reaching the middle plate- The space included between a pair of the first
kind of plates, contains one of the second kind in the middle, with one of the
third kind in each of the lateral spaces. Those on the sides are rough, with
small scattered tubercles, and their margins are curled. This last circumstance
occasions the roughness externally, where the longitudinal striae are the remains
of the gills. The plate which occupies the bottom of the cavity is smooth, vari-
ously twisted, and connected with the base of the lateral plates."

' " They are nearly transparent except at the termination, which is a little
ball, white and opake." De la Beche.

MiLLEPORA. Z. HELIANTHOIDA. 209

be continued, the wliole soft parts sink within the calcareous cup."
5th April 1833.

PociLLOPORA iNTEUSTiNCTA. Madrepora interstincta, Mull.
Zool. Dan. prod. 252 — Dr Fleming (Brit Anim. 511) has seen a
specimen <' probably of this species," obtained by Dr Hibbert in
Zetland, but I am not aware that any description of it has been yet
published.

Madrepora musicalis, Lin. Syst. 1278. Berk. Syn. i. 211.
Turt. Gmel. iv. 625. Turt. Brit. Faun. 204. — Said to be some-
times cast on the Irish coast ; but without the slightest claim to
denization.

Madrepora porpita, Turt. Gmel. iv. 616 A fossil confound-
ed with the M. porpita of the Indian seas.

MiLLEPORA TRUNCATA, Stew. Elem. ii. 426- Marked erroneous-
ly as British.

MiLLEPORA LICHENOIDES, Tuvt. Brit. Fauu. 204. Turt. Gmel.
iv. 635. — I am not aware on what authority this has been introduced
into our native Fauna by Dr Turton. Ellis says nothing that can
lead one to suppose that his specimen was British.

Fig. 31.

FAMILY VIII. ACTINIID.E.

19. Actinia,* Linnseus.
Character. Body conoid or cylindricaly adhering by a
broad base : the space between the mouth and the rim of the up-
per disk occupied by one or more uninterrupted series of conical
undivided tubular tentacula lohich are entirely retractile.

1. A. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, body conoid, smooth ; tentacu-
la numerous, multiserial ; margin of the oral disk ornamented
with a circle of azure-blue tubercles.

Var. a. Body and tentacula of a uniform liver-broMTi or olivaceous colour,
rarely streaked with bluish or green lines.

Vignette, No. 31.

Ortie de mer, Reaumur in Mem. de I'Acad. Roy. des Scienc. 1710, pi. 10.
fig. 22 Priapus equinus, Lin. Syst. edit. 10. 656. Hydra disci-
flora, tentaculis retractilibus, extimo disci margine tuberculato, Gccrtner

in Phil. Traas. lii. 83, pi. 1. fig. 3. Actinia equina, Zm. Syst. 1088.

Dicquemare in Phil. Trans. Ixiii. 364, pi 16, fig. l-Tf Mull. Zool.

* From uKTiv, a ray.

f Dicquemare himself uses no specific names": they were applied to his
figures by Dr Solander, who, it is to be presumed, was well acquainted with the
Linnjean species.

Actinia. Z. HELIANTHOIDA. 211

Dan. prod. 231, no. 2793. Turt. Gmol. iv. 104. Flem. Brit. Anim.
497. Cuv. Reg. Anim. iii. 292. Bosc, Vers, ii. 255. Johnston in
Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 243. Dalyell in Edin. New. Phil. .lourn. xvii.
41] ; and in Proc. Brit. Assoc. 1834, 599. Templeton in Mag. Nat.

Hist. ix. 303. A- mesembryanthemiim, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 4.

Turt. Brit. Faun. 131. Rapp, Polyp. 52, taf. 2, fig. 1. J ohiiston in

Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 81, fig. 12 A. hemispherica, Pen. Brit. Zool.

iv. 104. Berk. Syn. i. 186. Hogg's Stock. 30 A. rufa. Mull. Zool.

Dan. prod. 231. Zool. Dan. tab. 23, fig. 1-^. Pen. Brit. Zool. iv. 105.
Jameson in Wern. Mem. i. 558. Stew. Eleni. i. 393. Lam, Anim. s.
Vert. iii. 67. Stark, Elem. ii. 412. Rapp, Polyp. 53. Boget, Bridgevv.

Treat, i. 198. fig. 86, 87 A. Anemone, Pm. Brit. Zool. iv. 106.

Hogg's Stock. 30 A. corallina, Risso, L'Europ. Merid. v. 285

A. margaritifera, Templeton in Mag. Nat- Hist. ix. 304, fig. 50 Com-
mon Actinia, Buckland, Bridgew. Treat, ii. 89, pi. 54, fig. 4 Hydra

mesembryantliemum, AVew. Elem. ii. 451. Small red Sea- Nettle, Wal-
lis. Hist, of Nortliumb. i. 374.
Var. ^. Body paler striped longitudinally \\dth white ; tentacula annulated
with white.

Vignette, No. 29, page 205.
Actinia viduata, Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 231, no. 2799. Zool. Dan. pi.
63, fig. 6-8, — copied in Encyclop. Method, tab. 72, fig. 4, 5. Johnston
in Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 82, fig, 13. Turt. Gmel. iv. 101. Lam. Anim.
s. Vert. iii. 68. Bosc, Vers, ii. 256.
Hub. On rocks between tide-marks, very common.
Body one or one and a half inch in diameter, hemisphei'ical when
contracted, when relaxed forming a short cylinder with a breadth
gi'eater than the height, of a uniform liver-colour or often olive-green,
and sometimes streaked with blue or greenish lines, either continu-
ous, or in spots : the base generally of a greenish colour encircled
with an azure-blue line, but it is often also streaked with red, and the
blue marginal Une is wanting. The tentacula, when fully extended,
are nearly equal to the height of the body, and of the same colour.
The tubercles within the margin of the oral disk are formed by pa-
pillary projections of the parenchyma of the body, covered over on
the top with a thick layer of dense blue matter : in it, as well as in
the skin generally, minute fusiform calcareous spicula, some slenderer
than others, may be detected in abundance with the microscope.

In its young state, A. mesembryanthemum is liable to greater va-
riations in colour than when mature. One of these varieties, as it
seems to me, constitutes the A. viduata of Muller, distinguished by
its light olive body striped with white ; while the tentacula are pret-
tily ornamented with white and olive green rings. This variety usu-
ally attaches itself to shelving rocks, where it is covered over and
concealed by a layer of sand, protruding the tentacula through a
small aperture at the surface opposite the mouth. On the recess of

212 Z. HELIANTHOIDA. Actinia.

the tide, nothing of the animal can be seen, and its presence in a lo-
cality is only to be guessed at by the holes in the sand, which, how-
ever, are exactly like the holes of many arenicolous worms.

Actinia niesembryanthemnm lives between tide-marks, and is most
plentiful near that of high water. It is consequently often left ex-
posed to the open atmosphere, but it expands only when covered with
water. It never, so far as I have observed, emits from the mouth,
like the other species, any thread-like tangled filaments ; nor does it
seem to have the power of protruding the membrane of the stomach
in the form of vesicular lobes. Gsertner says that " the colour of its
body is always red in the summer, but changes into a dusky green, or
brown, towards the latter end of autumn," — a remark which certain-
ly does not hold good on the northern shores of Britain, where the
red and dusky green varieties may be found intermingled at all seasons.

2. A. Bellis, " body lengthened^ the lower part narrow,
smooth, the upper enlarged and glandularly loarty ; oral disc ex-
panded, lohed ; tentacida in several rows, variegated." Gaertner.
Hydra calyciflora, tentaculis retractilibus variegatis ; corpore verrucoso,

Gaertner in Phil. Trans, lii. 79. tab. 1, fig. 2 Actinia Bellis, Ellis

and Soland. Zooph. 2. Turt. Gmel. iv. 103. Turt. Brit. Faun. 131.

A. pedunculata, Pen. Brit Zool. iv. 102. Berk. Syn. i. 186. Lam.

Anim. s. Vert. iii. 70. i?osc, Vers, ii. 258. Stark, Elem. ii. 412. Flem.

Brit. Anim. 498. Templeton \nMa.g. Nat. Hist. ix. 303. Hydra bellis,

Stew. Elem. ii. 431.
Hah. " Frequently found in the pools about the Mount's Bay,"
Cornwall, " It is rare to meet with a single one in a place, there
being most commonly four or five of them living so near together in
the same fissure of the rock, which they constantly inhabit, that their
expanded calyces form a row of flower-like bodies, that seem to grow
upon the dig's under water," Gcertner. " Found in a pool on the
rocks at the north end of the Island of Rathlin, August 1795,"
Templeton.

"From its small basis rises a cylindric stalk, which supports the
roundish body of the animal, from whence afterwards the calyx, being
a continued membrane of the body, draws its origin. The stalk, or
the pedunculus of the polype, is quite smooth, and its colour inclines
towards the carnation. The outside of the calyx, and the body of
this animal, are marked with a number of small white protuberances,
resembling warts, to which fragments of shells, sand-grains, &c.adhere,
and hide the beautiful colour of these parts, which, from that of car-
nation, is insensibly changed towards the border of the calyx first in-
to purple, then violet, and at last into a dark brown. The inside of
the calyx is covered with the feelers, that grow in several ranges

Actinia. Z. HELIANTHOIDA. 213

upon it : they differ considerably in length ; those that are near the
edge of the calyx being but small papilla^, in proportion to those that
surround the disk, or the central ])art of the body. They are almost
transparent ; and some of them are of a pale ash colour, with brown
spots ; others, on the contrary, are of a chesnut colour^ marked with
white spots. The disk is formed like a star, which, according to the
figure that is traced out by the innermost row of the feelers, consists
of many angles. The colour of this part of the body is a beautiful
mixture of brown , yellow, ash-colour and white, which together form
variegated rays, that from the centre, or the mouth of the animal, are
spread over the whole surface of the disk. This polype contract-
ing- itself, changes its body into an irregular hemisphere, which is so
covered with the several extraneous bodies that stick to it, that it is
extremely difficult to know the animal in this state, and to discern it
from the rubbish, that commonly surrounds it." Gcertner.
Perhaps a variety of the A. gemmacea.

3. A. iNTESTiNALis, " hodij cylindrical, the wpyer half sud-
denly contracted and nnrroio" Dr Fleming.

Actinia intestinalis, i^air. Faun. Groenl. 350, no. 342, pi. I, fig. 11. Flem.
Brit. Anini. 498.
Hah. " Adheres to rocks at low water-mark, Zetland," Fleming.
" When contracted, the body seems like two broad rings, of near,
ly equal breadth, and about half an inch in diameter ; when expand-
ed to nearly two inches, the body consists of two cylindrical portions
of different dimensions, smooth, pellucid, yellowish ; a few longitudi-
nal white streaks under the skin ; oral disk not expanded, surround-
ed with about 18 filiform tentacula in two alternate rows." Fleming.

4. A. GEMMACEA, hody conoid, variously coloured, rough icitk
glandular warts or sometimes smooth ; tentacxda numerous, in 3
or 4 series, shorter than the diameter of the oral disk, thick, and
generally variegated with red and v;hite rings.

Plate xxvii.
Actinia senilis, Fle/n. Brit. Anim. 498. Juhnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii.

244.
Var. «. Body warty, the warts large and arranged in vertical rows Ortie

(le mer, Beaumur in Mem. de I'Acad. Roy. des Scieiic 1710, pi. 10, fig.

21, 23 — 26 Hydra disciflora, tentaculis retractilibus subdiaphanis ;

corpore cylindiico, miliaribus glandulis longitudiiialiter striate, Gartner

in Phil. Trans, lii. 82, tab- 1, fig. 4 Hydra gemmacea. Stew. Elem.

ii. 451 Actinia gemmacea, £//(s and Soland. Zooph. 3. Turt. Gmel.

iv. 104. Turt. Brit. Faun. 131. Wern. Mem. i. 558 A. verrucosa,

Penn. Brit Zool- iv. 1C3. Berh. Sjm. i. 186. Lam. Anim. s. Vert.

iii. 70. Stark, Elem. ii. 412. Bupp, Polyp, p. 50 A. glaudulosa

214 Z. HELIANTHOIDA. , Actinia.

Bosc, Vei-s,ii. 259 A. monile (the young,) Templeton in Mag. Nat.

Hist. ix. 303, fig. 49. A. Bellis, Rapp, Polyp. 30. tab. 1, fig. 1, 2.

Var. y3. The body warted, the warts equal, distinct, but scattered without

order over the surface. Act. senilis, Dicquemare'm Phil. Trans. Ixiii.

367, tab. 16, fig. 10 ; and tab. 17, fig. 11, 12. Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 105-

Blumenh. Man. 246. Templeton in Mag. Nat- Hist. ix. 303. A. cori-

acea, Cuv. Reg. Anim. iii. 291. Rapp, Polyp- 51, tab. 1, fig. 3, 4. Teale
in Trans. Leeds Soc. i. 91, pi. 9, 10, U.

Var. y. Body warted, the warts distant, equal, and sometimes obscure

Act. equina, Sowerby, Brit. Misc. 7, pi. 4. Turt. Brit. Faun. 130.

Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 106. A. effoeta? Rapp, Polyp. 34, taf. 2, fig.

2. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 303.
Var. <r. Body quite smooth, irregularly clouded with scarlet, tentacula an-

nulated with red and white Priapus sive Actinia proboscidibus crassis

rotundis, Bast. Opusc. Subsec. i. lib. 3. 143, tab. 13, fig. 1 Act. feli-

na, Lin. Syst. 1088. Barhut, Gen. Verm. 53, tab. 5, fig. 6. Bosc, Vers,

ii. 255 A. coccinea. Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 231, no. 2792. Zool.

Dan. tab. 63, fig. 1-3. (young.) Bosc, Vers, ii. 253. Lam. Anim. s.

Vert. iii. 68. A. crassicornis. Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 231. Adams in

Lin. Trans, iii. 252. Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 105. Turt. Gmel. iv. 100-
Turt. Brit. Faun. L30. Stew- Elem. i. 393. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. iii.
67. Stark, Elem ii. 412. Fabric. Faun. Grcenl. 348, no. 341. Jame-
son in Wern. Mem. i. 358 A. truncata, Jamesonin Wern. Mem. i.

538. Pe?in. Brit. Zool. iv. 106. Turt. Gmel. iv. 101. Turt. Brit.
Faun. 131.
Hab. In crevices of rocks between tide-marks, and on shells, &c.
in deep water, very common.

Body usually rather more than two inches in diameter, hemispheri-
cal when contracted, covered with glandular warts, arranged some-
times in regular perpendicular lines, sometimes irregularly, and some-
times they are scarcely or not at all obvious. The tentacula are dis-
posed within the circumference of the oral disk, in 3 or 4 close rows ;
they are thick, short, obtuse, somewhat compressed, almost always
annulated or variegated with white and red, but when the body is of
a uniform pale, flesh, or cream colour, the tentacula are of the same
colour and without rings. The animal protrudes from the mouth at
pleasure four or five vesicular, pellucid, scored lobes, which vary in
size according to their degree of evolution, and often hang over the
sides. When kept for a few days in a basin of sea-water, it becomes
much larger in all its parts, paler and almost diaphanous ; and the
tentacula elongate themselves, swell out, and are distinctly seen to be
tubular. These adhere tenaciously to foreign bodies, for their apices
act as suckers, and carry prey to the mouth in spite of all its strug-
gles.

This species is liable to great variation in colour and size. The

Actinia. Z. HELIANTHOIDA. 2J5

littoral varieties, or such as are alternately submerged and exposed by
the recess of the tides, are always strongly warted, generally orange -
coloured with dusky blotches, and coated with particles of broken
shells, small gravel and pieces of sea-weed, by which means, when
contracted, they are detected with difficulty in the recesses or sandy
places which they prefer. This foreign covering adheres to the glands
W'ith great tenacity, and cannot be removed by any natural causes to
which the Actinia is exposed ; but what is surely worthy of our ad-
miration, and seems to prove the existence of an instinct even in
these lowest creatures, the individuals which are placed in deep water,
as if aware they did not require such a mode of concealment, form
no extraneous covering, but leave the surface clean, and this acquires
then more vivid and varied tints, while at the same time the warts
become smaller or disappear. Of these pelagic sorts there are some
eiuinently beautiful : one is of a uniform bright scarlet studded over
with pale warts like ornamental beads ; another is of a pale sulphur
yellow, or greenish with orange-coloured stripes, the oral disk and ve-
sicular lobes borrowing the hues of the wild rose ; but they vary in this
respect so much that no description can do justice to them or define
their limits.

I have little doubt that all the synonymes quoted under this spe-
cies truly belong to it. Gsertner's figure represents it of a more
cylindrical shape than I have ever seen it assume, and with only a
single row of rather slender tentacula, which, he says, vary from 18
to 36 in number. Hence the figure we may suppose to have been
taken from a young individual, which is certainly the case in the Ac-
tinia monile of Mr Templeton.

Dicquemare says — " Of all the kinds of sea-anemonies, I would
prefer this for the table ; being boiled some time in sea water, they
acquire a firm and palatable consistence, and may then be eaten with
any kind of sauce. They are of an inviting appearance, of a light
shivering texture, and of a soft white and reddish hue. Their smell
is not unlike that of a warm crab or lobster." Phil. Trans, abridg.
xiii. 637.

Ehrenberg divides the family Actiniidse into two sections, — the
second embracing such genera as have glandular pores in the skin.
The genus '* Cribrina," in this section, has Act. gemmacea for its
type, which is thus far sundered from the species with which it is
here associated. Ehrenberg seems to me to have been peculiarly
unfortunate in his choice of a character, for if I have studied the ani-
mal rightly, so far from being of sectional or generic value, it serves
not even to discriminate a species, which may have its smooth and

216 Z. HELIANTHOIDA. Actinia.

glandular varieties, passing too into one another by such " unpei*-
ceived shades" that the limits cannot be distinctly defined. Nay, as
Mr Teale has also noticed, I have seen specimens which were glan-
dular on one-half of the body and smooth on the other, illustrating in
a striking manner the inconstancy of the structure, and its subordi-
nate value.

In most systematic works on British Zoology there is an Actinia
effcetay which is referable sometimes to this species, and sometimes
to Act. maculata. The Act. effceta of Linnaeus, Syst. 1088, is found-
ed on the " Tertia Priapi marini sive Actiniae species" of Baster,
Opus. Subsec. 143, tab. 14, fig. 2. This figure is very unlike any
variety of Act. gemmacea, or any other species with which I am ac-
quainted. All the description Baster gives is this : " Directas ilia
habet in corpore strias, et inferne basin, sive marginem, qua se
affigit."

5. A. DiANTHUS, body cylindraceous^ smooth ; oral disk
marked in the centre with clavate radiating hands ; tentacula nu-
merous, irregular, the outer small and forming round the margin
a thick filamentous fringe. Ellis.

Plate xxviii.
Priapus sive Actinia proboscidibus tenuibus brevibus, Ba&t. Opusc. Subsec
i. lib. 3, 143. tab. 13. fig. 2 — 4. (bene) — Actinia senilis, Lin. Syst.

1089.* Actinia Dianthus, jEZ/w in Phil. Trans. Ivii. 436. tab. 19. fig. 8-

Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 7. Shaw, Nat. Misc. xiii. pi- 539 ; (copied from
Ellis and coloured from the description !) Turt. Gmel. iv. 104. Turt.

Brit. Faun. 131. Stew. Elem. i. 394. Flem. Brit. Anim. 498

Fourth species of Anemony, Dicqnemare in Phil. Trans, abridg. xiii.
638. pi. 12. fig. 9 — A pentapetala, Pe7in. Brit. Zool. iv. 104. Berk.
Syn. i. 187. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. iii. 71. Bosc, Vers, ii. 259. Actinolobe

ceillet, Blainv. Actinol. 322 A. plumosa, Mull Zool. Dan. prod. 230.

no. 2791. Zool. Dan. tab. 88. fig. 1. 2. (drawn when the animal has
been in a very relaxed and half expanded condition.) Turt. Gmel. iv.
100. Turt. Brit. Faun. 130. Stew. Elem. i. 394. Lam. Anim. s.
Vert. iii. 68. Bosc, Vers, ii. 256. Stark, Elem. ii. 412. Cuv. Reg. Anim.
iii. 291. Rapp, Polyp. 55, tab. 3. fig. 1. (good) Johnston in Trans.

Newc. Soc. ii. 246. La Metridie plumeuse, Blainv. Actinol. 321

A. senDis, Barb. Gen. Verm. 53. tab- 5. fig. 5. Adams in Lin. Trans.
v. 9. Lam. Anim- s. Vert. iii. 68. Stark, Elem. ii. 412 — Hydra Dian-
thus, Stew. Elem. ii. 451.
Hob. On rocks and shells in deep water or within low tide-mark.

* Linnieus quotes two distinct figures of Baster for his senilis, but as he sub-
sequently refers to one of these figures for his effceta, the other (tab. 1 3. fig. 2. )
must be considered as representing the true senilis.

Actinia. Z. HELIANTHOIDA. 217

At Hastings in Sussex, Ellis. Tenbigh, Wales, Adams. Frith
of Forth, Dr Coldstream. Berwick Bay, common.

When contracted the body is of a thick short sxibcylindrical form,
deeply wrinkled in two or three places, about three inches long, and
one-half of that in diameter, but when fully expanded about five
inches : the skin is quite smooth, and of a uniform whitish, cream or
flesh-colour. The centre of the oral disk is ornamented with a circle
of white bands radiating from the mouth, and the transparency of
the skin here permits us to see the lamellae running across the cir-
cumference with their narrow colourless interspaces. From these
interspaces the tentacula originate ; the largest about one inch long,
watery, white, tapered, smooth, irregularly dispersed, and very nu-
merous. They are all placed between the mouth and the margin,
which is encircled with a dense fringe of inimitable beauty, com-
posed of innumerable short tentacula or filaments forming a thick
furry border.

I have seen specimens of this species, which is certainly as MuUer
says " actiniarum pulcherriraa," from the size of a split pea to fully
five inches in diameter, and have found it, in all the intermediate
sizes, uniform in shape and colour, but others have found it variable
in these respects. It is strictly gregarious, and the larger individuals
are generally surrounded by a multitude of small and middle-sized
ones, which form very pleasing groups. From this gregarious habit
it is subject to monstrosities, two or three occasionally uniting and
coalescing into one body, of which Dicquemare has described an ex-
ample.

" This species is good to eat," according to Dicquemare ; and his
testimony may be strengthened by the authority of Plancus, who
says of his " Urtica soluta caryophyllura referens," — a synonyme
probably of A. Dianthus, * — " hsec more ostrearum coquitur, et una
cum ipsis, quibus, ut dixi, frequentissime heeret, comeditur." Plane.
de Conch, min, not. 43, tab. 4, fig, 6. +

No one who has studied the species but will, I think, assent to the
conjecture of Cuvier that the A. Dianthus of Ellis is a mere variety
of the A. pluraosa of subsequent authors, the former having had the
oral disc deeper lobed than is usual from peculiarity of position or

• If this opinion is correct, and to me the thing seems indisputable, then the
Acti