332 Dr Grant on the Virgularia mirahilis 



talned within the fleshy substance. These ova appear to pass 

 along the pinna?, to be discharged through the polypi, as in 

 the Lobularia, Gorgonia, Caryophyllea, Alcyonia, &c. but 

 they are certainly not generated by the polypi themselves, as 

 we might be led to believe by some authors, as Pallas, (El. 

 Zoopk. 362.) who state as a character of these animals that 

 their polypi are oviparous. The ova in almost every known 

 zoophyte are formed by the common connecting substance of 

 the animal, and not by the polypi, which appear to be only 

 the mouths or organs of digestion. In Plumularice, Sertu- 

 larice, Campamdurice, horny CellaricB, Anteiiniilarice, the ova 

 are formed in vesicles which originate from the centre of the 

 stem. In FlustrcE, calcareous Cellarice, and some others, the 

 ova are formed in the cells, but exterior to the bodies of the 

 polypi, which disappear before the ova arrive at maturity. In 

 the Lobulariae, Gorgoniae, Spongiaj, Clionae, &c. the ova are 

 formed and matured in the common fleshy substance of the 

 body before they advance to be discharged through the polypi, 

 or the fecal orifices. The formation of the ova by the general 

 connecting mass appeared more obvious in the Pennatula phos- 

 phorea, where I found innumerable round yellow ova about 

 the size of poppy-seeds placed, not precisely in the situation 

 described by Bohadsch (see Phil. Tr. liii. 423.) but at the 

 back part of the pinnae, and many of them advancing for- 

 ward in the substance of the pinnae to pass out through the 

 bodies of the polypi. Both Bohadsch and Pallas have placed 

 the ova in the pinnated part of the stem where 1 could not 

 detect any, .the whole of that part being filled with a very 

 soft semi-muscular substance destined to move the axis, the 

 stem, and the pinnae. 



The axis of the Pennatula phosphor ea^ Linn. (P. rubra. Pall.) 

 like that of the Virgularia, dissolves with efi^ervescence in nitric 

 acid. It is so slender and flexible at its extremities, that it is 

 found coiled up at both ends in the contracted state of the ani- 

 mal, and becomes straight in its expanded condition. The polypi 

 resemble those of the Virgularia. They have eight tentaculaj 

 with long conical lateral ciliae. From the dark opaque purplej 

 matter, and numerous calcareous spicula covering their sheathj 

 the polypi cannot so easily be perceived extending along th< 



