HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



^11 



from a crab-pot ; it was unfoitunately the dried 

 cnist only, tlie polyp being most certainly dead. 



Attached to the dark fronds of a polysiphonia the 

 thread-like CoTyne pusilla may be looked for in Steep- 

 hill Cove, a few hundred yards westward of Ventnor ; 

 it is sometimes two inches long, with alternate 

 branches, but an insignificant little zoophyte, which 

 is easily overlooked or thrown aside as a bleached 

 sea-weed. Under the inch power the Coryne is 

 readily identified by the beautiful cable-like stem, 

 and the club-shaped polyps, with short and thick 

 tentacula, which move only in the slowest and most 

 clumsy fashion. Of vSertulariada; many species 

 abound — S.puinila grows in vast quantities at the roots 



Antennularia antenniua, with cells much broken and 

 disfigured. While the Sertulariic are usually pale 

 brown colour, the Plumularia are of a decided yellow 

 tinge ; P. falcala and cristata are both abundant 

 at Ventnor, infesting the stems of the coarser brown 

 algas in dense masses. A third species we figured 

 as Laonicdea ohliqua after Johnston, but on referring 

 the living specimen to Rev. J. Hincks, he placed it 

 among the Plumularia on account of the structure 

 known as the " Sarcotheca," an organ very im- 

 perfectly understood. Supporting each polyp cell 

 is a tubular continuation of the stem ending in a cup 

 enclosing protoplasm., and thread-like appendages 

 which can be protruded and retracted at will. These 



.^ 



A 





F.'g. 84. — Campamilaria duinosa. The 

 small figure shows the nat. size. 



Fig. 85. — Cainpaniilaria voht- 

 Ulis. The small figure shows 

 the nat. size. 



Fij. 86. — Canipaniilaria syri/iga. 

 The small figure sho.vs the cat. 

 size. 



Fig. S7. — Flnstra hispida. The small figure shows the 

 nat. size. 



of the common Fucus : a fragment, half an inch long, 

 Tnay be examined at any time with a score of polyps 

 playing about. It is possible to cut the spray into 

 three or four pieces, and still the polyps continue to 

 disport themselves. S. polyzonias, rosacea, nigi-a, 

 abietijia, fiUcula, opercidata, argentea and aipressina, 

 may all be collected at Ventnor. Ciiprcssina differs 

 slightly from argentea, the bracelets all gracefully 

 bending downwards, while with argentea they stand 

 out at all angles ; the vesicles also differ in shape, 

 and, if present, afford the surest means of defining 

 the species. The exquisite form of rosacea surpasses 

 all other Sertularire in beauty. Amid all the wealth 

 of Sertulariae we could only find a single dead bit of 



filaments hang over the surface of the polyp cells, 

 possibly, as Mr. Hincks suggests, for purposes of 

 nutrition. This Plumularia obliqua is evidently the 

 same zoophyte figured by Johnston as Laomedea 

 obliqua, and it would be useful if other naturalists 

 would study the singular process mentioned (fig. S3). 

 The Campanulariadce are the most graceful of all 

 hydroids, of delicate and fragile construction. Both 

 Laomedea geiiiculata and gelatinosa are met with at 

 Ventnor, the specific characters of the two being diffi- 

 cult to separate. Geiiiculata is frequently forked, has 

 short stems to each polypidom, and ovarian capsules 

 contracted at the rim ; gelatinosa has much longer 

 foot stems, which are more prominently ringed ; 



