CAMPANULA R1JD.E. 137 



Suborder II. THECAPHORA. 



SERTULAKJ.NA, Ehrenbcrg, Coral!, des roth. Meer. 73; Johnston, Brit. Zoopb. 



i. 57. 



SERTULAKIAD.E, Huxley, Oceanic Hydrozoa, 21. 

 SERTULARLE, Agassiz, Nat. Hist. U. S. iv. 348. 

 SKEXOTOKA, J. V. Cams, Handbuch der Zoologie, ii. 558. 



Family I. Campanulariidse. 



HYDROTHEC.E terminal, pedicellate, campanulate ; POLY- 

 PITES with a large, trumpet-shaped proboscis. 



THIS family is preeminent for delicate beauty and 

 graceful habit. It includes a very considerable number 

 of British species, of which some are deep-water forms ; 

 but a large proportion are found either between tide- 

 marks or at no great distance from the shore. 



If we imagine minute crystalline chalices, creuated or 

 plain round the margin and mounted on slender pedicels, 

 twisted spirally or delicately ringed, which are all united 

 and bound to the body on which they grow by the finest 

 network of tubes, we have the form which the polypary 

 assumes in one section of this exquisite group. In an- 

 other the species are arborescent and sometimes of con- 

 siderable size, their tree-like tufts presenting the most 

 lovely shapes, the branches laden with the hyaline calycles 

 (variously formed and adorned) and with the vase-like cap- 

 sules, and the whole structure exhibiting an indescribable 

 delicacy of texture and gracefulness of habit. In both 

 these sections the polypites are generally large and hand- 

 some ; and when the embossed tentacles are thrown out 

 over the margin of the little crystal dwelling, some droop- 

 ing downwards, others standing almost erect (like a circle 



