CORYMORPHA NUTANS. 129 



Sarshas accurately described this portion of the structure, 

 and has remarked on the difficulty of detaching the Cory- 

 morpha from its site. "When taken up, it has usually a 

 bulb of sand at its base, which is held together by the ad- 

 hesive threads. 



Allman has seen a specimen, when in confinement and free 

 from sand, attach itself to the bottom of the vessel in which 

 it was kept, by means of a multitude of fine tubular fila- 

 ments, which formed an entangled web-like tissue, and 

 which were ultimately invested with a delicate polypary. 



We have here a most interesting modification of the 

 hydrorhiza, adapting it to the pecidiar locality in which 

 the Corymorpha lives. The ordinary stolonic network, 

 which is suitable only for a firm base, gives place to a mul- 

 titude of long hair-like adhesive rootlets, which fix the 

 zoophyte securely, even in the yielding sand. 



The gonozooid seems to undergo little change after 

 liberation, merely increasing in size. 



Hub. Bay of Stromness, Orkneys, in 10 fathoms (Forbes 

 and Goodsir) : Shetland (Forbes) : Fowey, Cornwall* : Isle 

 of Man (J. A.) : Seaham Harbour, Durham, not uncom- 

 mon in from 6-12 fathoms (G. Hodge) : Firth of Forth in 

 about 14 fathoms (G. J. A.). 



Corymorpha nutans varies much in size according to the 

 locality. Specimens from the far north reach a height of 

 3 or 4^ inches. The Durham examples are smaller; 

 while the Cornish specimen is still more diminutive. 



[Near Bergen, Norway, in 30-40 fathoms (Sars) : Grand 

 Manan, on a sandy bottom in from 4-15 fathoms, abun- 

 dant : off West Quoddy Head one hundred, or more, were 

 taken at a single haul of the dredge (Stimpson)t-] 



* Mr. Peach has also obtained two other specimens in Fowey Harbour. 



t Sars, in a recent paper on Corymorpha, has described several new and 

 nearly allied spcciea. Steenstrup has published a tropical form procured 

 from Rio Janeiro. 



