294 POLYZOA INKUNDIBULATA. 



Polypidom attached by capillary roots, usually from two to four 

 inches long, sometimes even eight or nine, very bushy, " in cupressi 

 formam elongata," greyish-white, flaccid even when dry ; the branches 

 close, erect, dichotomous, filiform, consisting of a series of paired 

 cells divided by a simple joint. Cells^dnate, smooth, obliquely trun- 

 cated, placed back to back, " so that the pair together resemble a coat 

 of mail, or pair of stays ; and the entrances of the cells look like the 

 places for the arms to come out at." Ellis. The polypes have ten 

 tentacula : they have no gizzard, but in other respects the alimentary 

 canal presents the usual details. Farre. 



I shall find no fitter place than this to introduce a notice of the 

 " Shepherd's purse Coralline" of Ellis,* the position of which 

 amongst zoophytes is still undecided. The species is very rare. 

 Neither Ellis nor Pallas have mentioned any habitat, and no other 

 naturalist named in our synonymy appears to have seen it. I am 

 indebted for my much prized specimens to Mrs. Griffiths. They 

 are parasitical on Plumularia falcata, and are from the shores of De- 

 vonshire. Mr Peach has lately found it in the Isle of Wight. 



The description and figures of Ellis possess all their usual beauty 

 and fidelity. He says :— " This most beautiful pearl-coloured Coral- 

 line adheres by small tubes to fucus's from whence it changes into 

 flat cells ; each single cell like the bracket of a shelf, broad at top, 

 and narrow at bottom : these are placed back to back in pairs, one 

 above another, on an extremely slender tube, that seems to run 

 through the middle of the branches of the whole coralline. The 

 cells are open at top. Some of them have black spots in them : and 

 from the top of many of them, a figure seems to issue out like a 

 short tobacco-pipe ; the small end of which seems to be inserted in 

 the tube that passes through the middle of the whole. 



" The cells in pairs are thought by some to have the appearance 

 of the small pods of the Shepherd's Purse : by others, the shape of 

 the seed-vessels of the herb Veronica or Speedwell." Ellis. 



I can add nothing essential to this graphical description. The 



* ShepherdVpurse Coralline, Ellis Corall. 41, no. 8, pi. 22, fig. a, A. — Sertularia 

 bursaria, Lin. Syst. 1314. Berk. Syn. i. 219 — S. Bursa, Turt. Brit. Faun. 216. 

 — Cellularia bursaria. Pall. Elench. C5. Ellis in Phil. Trans. Ivii. 437, pi. 19, 

 fig. 12. — Cellaria bursaria, Ellis and ,SW««f/. Zooph. 25. Z(/7«. Anim. s. Vert. 

 2de edit. ii. 189.— Dynamena bursaria, Lamour. Corall. 79- — Notaniia bursiiria, 

 Flem. Brit. Anim. 511.— Gemicellaria bursaria, Blainv. Actinolog. 461. 



