Natural History. 411 



publication^ under the title of *' The Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles, 

 and Fishes, of Great Britain and Ireland." 



Mr Graham DaWell next read a very valuable memoir on the 

 propagation of Scottish zoophytes, of which the following is a very 

 short abstract. 



All the following animal products are aquatic, and, excepting the 

 last, inhabit the sea. Those less conversant with their formation 

 may be referred to the general aspect of the actinia now ranked 

 among the radiata ; and to the hydra^ as consisting of a soft fleshy 

 body with a dilatable mouth and stomach in the centre, surrounded 

 by tentacula serving the office of fingers or hands. 



1 . A specimen of the Actinia equina preserved by me, produced 

 above 276 young in six years. The embryos are first exhibited to 

 the observer in the tips of the tentacula, whence they can be with- 

 drawn and returned, and are finally produced by the mouth, du- 

 ring great compression of the parent. A tip with its embryo ha- 

 ving been amputated, the latter began to breed in fourteen months, 

 and survived five years. The actinia is erroneously defined in the 

 Systema H^aturcB^ as having only one aperture. Streams may be 

 seen spouting from the tentacula of tbe Crassicornis, and each of the 

 thirty or forty tubercles of the equina, open to discharge purple 

 flakes after feeding. 



2. The Hydra tuba or trumpet polypus, a new Scottish species, is 

 the largest of the Hydrm proper, extending about two inches in 

 whole, with its long white tentacula waving like a beautiful silken 

 pencil in the water. It propagates by an external shapeless bud 

 issuing from the side of the parent, and withdrawing, though very 

 long connected by a ligament, on approaching maturity. In thir- 

 teen months a single specimen had eighty-three descendants. 

 Singular and distorted forms appear from the successive and irre- 

 gular evolution of the buds, during subsistence of the connecting 

 ligament. Observations were protracted during five years on the 

 same group and the young. 



8. The Tidmlaria indivisa is rooted to rocks and shells, by a 

 stalk above a foot high crowned by a scarlet head, resembling a 

 beautiful flower, with numerous external and central tentacula. 

 Splendid groups occur of fifty or even of 100 specimens. The 

 ovarium of this product consisting of several clusters like bunches 

 of grapes is borne externally on the head, from whence the ovum 

 or advancing embryo separates and falls to be developed below. 



