CAMPANULARIAD/E : LAOMEDEA. 105 



Elench. 116. 5'tezt'. Elem. ii. 444. F/cmiw^ in Edin. Phil. Joum. ii. 84. Flcvi. 

 Phil. Zool. ii. 616, pi. 5, fig. 3. — -Laomedea gelatinosa, Lamour. Corall. 92. TJiomp- 

 son in Ann. N. Hist. v. 2.51. Hassall in Ibid. vi. 169. Cowh Zooph. Cornw. 21 : 

 Corn. Faun. iii. 39, pi. 10, fig. 2. — Campanularia gelatinosa, Flem. Brit. Anim. 

 549. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 254. VanBeneden Canipan. 33, pi. 1 

 and 2. — Sertularia dichotoma, in part, Lister in Phil. Trans, an. 1834, 372, 375, 

 pi. 10, fig. 1. — La Sertolara dictoma, Carol. Pol. mar. 194, tav. 7, fig. 5 — 8. 



Hah. On stones and sea-weecls between tide-marks. Sometimes 

 parasitical on Zostera marina. It is very abundant on some parts 

 of the Solway at low-water mark on a stony bottom, and becomes a 

 great nuisance to tbe stake-nets, wbicb require to be tidely cleared 

 from the quantity that is caught by them. Sir William Jardine. 



This species, in its most perfect state, rises to the height of eight 

 or ten inches. The stem is as thick as small twine, straight, opake, 

 and composed of many tubular tlireads twisted together. It does 

 not properly divide itself, but sends off branches from all sides, 

 which are either opposite or alternate, and much ramified into 

 diverging branchlets, each of them marked with three or four rings 

 at its base, and terminated with a bell-shaped polype-cell of a very 

 thin corneous texture. A specimen of this description from Shet- 

 land, in the collection of my friend Dr. Coldstream, is figured in 

 Plate XXVII. 



But more commonly Laomedea gelatinosa is found in a much hum- 

 bler condition, and under a guise that requires, for its discrimination 

 from Laomedea geniculata, a careful examination. It occurs thus 

 in Berwick Bay, growing gregariously on the sides and under-sur- 

 face of stones lying in shallow pools between tide-marks, and seem- 

 ingly giving a preference to those that contain an impure or brack- 

 ish water. The shoots are all connected with one another by the 

 radicle fibre, which creeps in an irregular manner along the rock ; 

 they are rarely above an inch in height, simple or sparingly 

 branched, consisting of a single tube of a light corneous colour and 

 texture, ringed above the origins of the long twisted filiform pedi- 

 cles on which the polype-cells are raised. These cells are deeply 

 cupped, transparent, with a wide even margin. Vesicles urn- 

 shaped, smooth, shooting from the axils of the pedicles. They are 

 matured during the summer months, when we find them filled with 

 ova of a circular flattish form, marked with a dark speck in the 

 centre. At first they fill scarcely half of the vesicle, but by their 

 increase they soon come to occupy the whole cavity, and are 

 ultimately extruded from the top ; after which the empty vesicle 



