Mrs. Thynne and Mr. Gosse on the Increase of Madrepores. 459 



the tentacles ; while in some points the figures in question dif- 

 fei'ed from the Corynactis and agreed with Caryophyllia. 



Under these circumstances the suspicion occurred to me, that 

 possibly the young animals whose history she had pursued 

 might have had no connexion with her CaryophyllicB, but were 

 the progeny of either the above-named or some other allied, but 

 as yet unrecorded, species of Corynactis^. And this suspicion 

 I took the liberty of suggesting to my kind informant, with 

 my drawings of the Corynactis ^ for her consideration. I was 

 favoured, in reply, with the following communication from that 

 lady, which certainly does seem to warrant the correctness of her 

 conclusions : — 



Mrs. Thynne to Mr. Gosse. 



7 West Mall, Clifton, April 12th, 1856. 



" You understood my Notes quite right, in that I said 



my young Caryophyllim did not, during two years, form any coral- 

 lum ; and I am much shocked you should suppose I could think 

 amiss any question or doubt that has arisen in your mind, as my 

 observations are of course liable to error ; and though I feel sure 

 no naturalist who had seen them would have hesitated as to their 

 species, now you mention it, I am not surprised that any one 

 who had not, should do so. I will give you a further descrip- 

 tion of them, and my reasons for believing them true Caryo- 

 phyllice', and if you still think I am mistaken, I shall probably 

 pronounce you the better judge. 



^' I first discovered the two embryos (therefore I had double 

 evidence) with a lens, whilst they were still microscopic objects, 

 in a large glass bowl, in which were no other animals than adult 

 Caryophyllia J which had been ejecting ova for two months 

 previously. They were fixed on a piece of rock I had received 

 from Torquay in the course of the spring, to which sea-weed 

 was attached ; and it might perhaps be this bunch of sea- weed 

 which harboured the ova, and prevented them from being lost 

 when the water was changed. As they grew larger, they did not 

 merely bear a general resemblance to the adults, but I really 

 may say they were identical with the fleshy part of all of them, 

 except in colour ; and in this particular they so closely resembled 

 one, that I concluded it was the mother. They were also so iden- 

 tical with each other as well as with this presumed parent, that, 

 after the divisions became frequent, and in their positions they 

 had become mixed together on the rocks, I was no longer able to 



* I use the generic name under which the animal has been recognized ; 

 but it will require to be separated from Corynactis, and associated generi- 

 cally with another form, which I hope soon to describe. 



