138 CAMPANTJLARIIDJE. 



of guards) around the central proboscis, a prettier sight 

 will not often reward the naturalist. 



"Delicacy, transparency, and grace pervade the entire 

 structure ; the spirit of beauty has thrown itself into every 

 curve and line : the eye rests with full satisfaction on the 

 little cups, so perfect is their form ; and hardly less beau- 

 tiful are the ringed and twisted pedicels that support 

 them." 



In another section the calycles are curiously opercu- 

 lated, being surmounted by little turrets formed of con- 

 vergent segments, which open to allow of the passage of 

 the polypite, and close again as it retreats. 



The polypites present few diversities. The body, when 

 extended, is elongate, expanding upwards, and terminating 

 above in a very conspicuous cup-shaped proboscis, around 

 which the numerous milk-white tentacles, roughened by 

 the whorls of thread-cells, are ranged, alternately de- 

 pressed and elevated. 



The polypite does not extend to the bottom of the 

 hydrotheca, but rests on a kind of floor a short distance 

 from it, to which the coanosarc or common connecting- 

 thread is prolonged from below. 



In one instance at least (Campanularia flexuosa, Hincks), 

 the tentacles are united towards the base by a membranous 

 web of extreme tenuity. The gonophores are contained 

 in protective cases (gonothecae), which exhibit the elegance 

 of form that is so characteristic of the family. 



The reproductive zooids in this family present many 

 modifications. In some of the genera they are simple 

 sporosacs, in which the generative products are matured 

 within the capsule, being discharged at length through its 

 orifice. In a few cases the development of the ova is 

 completed within an extracapsular marsupium, which 

 bursts at last and liberates the planulcs. In other genera 



