TUBULARIID^E. 



Family XI. Tubulariidae. 



POLYPITES flask-shaped, with two sets of filiform tentacula, 

 one oral, the other placed near the base of the body, 



Genus TUBULARIA, Linnceus (in part). 

 Der. From tubulus, a little tube. 



PARYPHA, Agassiz, N. H. U. S. iv. 342 (for some of the species). 

 THAMNOCNIDIA, Agassiz, N. H. U. S. iv. 342 (ditto). 



GENERIC CHARACTER. Stems simple or branched, rooted 

 by a filiform stolon, the whole invested by a polypary ; poly- 

 pites flask-shaped, with filiform tentacles disposed in two 

 verticils the oral short and surrounding a conical pro- 

 boscis, the aboral long and forming a circle near the base 

 of the body ; gonophores borne on peduncles springing from 

 the body of the polypite between the two circles of tentacles, 

 containing fixed sporosacs. 



THE polypites of this genus are richly coloured with va- 

 rious shades of red, and present the appearance of bright 

 flowers on erect and slender stems. 



The reproductive buds never become detached; but in 

 some cases (e. g. T. indivisa] they are furnished with an um- 

 brella in which the radiating and circular canals are present, 

 and an orifice surrounded by four tubercles, representing 

 the marginal tentacles. The manubrium is destitute of a 

 mouth. There is every preparation for independent exist- 

 ence up to a certain point ; but here an arrest of deve- 

 lopment takes place, and the bud remains enclosed in the 

 outer envelope, while the swimming-bell is converted into 

 a chamber or nursery, in which the embryo passes through 

 its early stages, escaping at last through the opening above. 

 In the development of Tubularia the plannle stage is ab- 



