iS4 Dr Grant on the Virgnlaria mirabilis, Sfc. 



like an actinia or hbularia, they exhibited that slow peristaltic 

 or vermicular motion, accurately described by Bohadsch, which 

 passes very gradually over their stem and pinnae, and causes 

 the pinnae to assume various positions. The result of this 

 successive distension of the parts when the animal lay hori- 

 zontally on its back, was an almost imperceptible creeping 

 motion in the direction of the naked part of the stem. This 

 direction was probably given by the bundles of spines placed 

 along the back, and the motion may be quicker when the ani- 

 mal lies on a rough surface, and in its natural element. The 

 motions of the pennatulae in bending their body, or contract- 

 ing and extending their pinnae in different directions, were per- 

 formed with the same languor as in other fleshy zoophytes, and 

 were not in the least calculated to make them swim to and fro 

 in the sea. Mr Ellis states that they are often found floating 

 near the surface (Phil Trans, liii. 420), but this does not 

 show that they reach that situation by their own efforts, and 

 not by tides, currents, or storms ; and there is nothing in Bo- 

 hadsch's account of the slow motions of the pinnae which 

 should make Mr Ellis believe that these parts move like the 

 fins of a fish, and serve the same purpose as these organs in 

 making the pennatulce swim. The fishermen, almost daily ac- 

 customed to see these animals, inform me that they have 

 never seen them swimming, but always procure them by their 

 dredges or hook-lines from the bottom, where they shine with 

 so great brilliancy as to enable them to perceive the fishes 

 swimming into their nets. On shaking the Pennatulce in the 

 dark, I observed a few only of the polypi emit a brilliant but 

 momentary bluish white light, and the Virgularice when 

 shaken, emitted no luminous appearance. From all that I 

 could observe of these animals in the living state, I think it 

 quite improbable that Pennatulae possess the power of swim- 

 ming to and fro by their own efforts, but that they most likely 

 lie at the bottom, and move in a languid manner, like Spa- 

 tangi, Asterice, or Actinice, and that their structure and mode 

 of generation do not differ essentially from those of many 

 other zoophytes. 



