INTRODUCTION. xlvii 



beauty and luxuriance that distinguish the zoophytes of 

 Devon and Cornwall and, to a less extent, of the west coast 

 of Scotland. 



A few species are decidedly local. Diphasia pinnata, the 

 finest of the British Scrtulariidse, is confined to the coast 

 of Devon and Cornwall. Coryne vaginata is the common 

 representative of its family in the south and west, but 

 does not range northward, so far as we know at present. 



Syncoryne eooimia fills a similar position on the east 

 coast, and does not appear to occur elsewhere. 



A large number of the Athecata have only been observed 

 hitherto in the north ; but as most of them are minute 

 species, and have only been discovered recently, we should 

 not be justified in drawing any inferences as to the extent 

 of their range. 



If we turn now to the foreign relations of the British 

 Hydroids, we find that a large number of them occur along 

 the Atlantic coasts of North America, mingled with others. 

 At least thirty species are known to be common to the two 

 faunas*. The North-Pacific forms seem to be altogether 

 distinct from our own. A few of our British species cluster 

 about the North Cape : most of these have a very wide 

 range of distribution ; but one or two are chiefly confined 

 to the north-eastern division of our coast. 



Many Hydroids are common to Britain and the Medi- 

 terranean. Clavatella, which has been found as far north 

 as Whitby, on the east coast of England, ranges to Nice ; 

 and Podocoryne carnea is at home in Norway and at 

 Naples. Some of our species are inhabitants of the coast 

 of Labrador, the polar waters that bathe the North Cape, 



* The Hydroid fauna of Labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence seems to 

 be to a large extent identical with that of our own north-eastern coasts. 



