150 



ternodes, which are elbowed above on alternate sides, so 

 that a kind of bracket is formed for the support of the 

 calycles. The capsules are of a most elegant form, resem- 

 bling, as Dr. Johnston has remarked, a Greek vase or urn ; 

 they are elongate, and taper off gradually from the flat- 

 tened top to the base, becoming very slender below. From 

 the summit rises a short tubular orifice. They very gene- 

 rally project at right angles to the plane in which the 

 calycles lie*; at times, however, they seem to be ap- 

 pressed to the stem. They contain a large number of 

 gonophores. The gonozooids are beautiful objects, and 

 very lively in their movements; they are liberated in 

 great numbers, and are excluded in very various stages of 

 development : some small, with the arms stunted ; others 

 much larger, with the arms of considerable length. 



The shallow swimming-bell is often reverted, the mauu- 

 brium hanging below the convex surface, and the tentacles 

 drooping in graceful curves from, the margin. In this 

 state they might serve as the model for a vase. The 

 lithocysts contain a refractile spherule, and stand out 

 prominently on the basal portion of the tentacle. I 

 have noticed a little orange-colour at the base of the 

 manubrium. 



There are two marked forms of this species : one deli- 

 cate, of a pure whiteness and rather humble growth ; the 

 other much larger and coarser in habit, and less strongly 

 zigzagged. I have seen specimens in which the scale of 

 all the parts was much smaller than in the common form. 

 A dense forest of this variety covers a broad frond of sea- 

 weed in my collection, bearing the elegant capsules in 

 great profusion; they are developed 011 the creeping 



* Agassiz has pointed this out in his account of the American Eucope 

 (liaphana, a species which I cannot hesitate to identify with the present 

 (3i.II. U. S. v,,l. iv. p. 324). 



