ESCHARID^ : CELLULARIA. 837 



fibres pullulating from the plane inferior surface. The branches are 

 rather broad, dichotomous, of an earthy brown colour, brittle when 

 dry. Within the cells I have occasionally seen a nearly globular 

 orange-coloured ovum, and sometimes two ova. 



The mouth of the cell is very regular, oval, and margined. An 

 operculum, similar to that of the Flustrse, rises in front to give a pas- 

 sage to the polype. On each side of the cell, in front, there are two 

 slender, straight, and rather long calcareous spines. The cells are 

 contiguous on the inner side throughout their length, and are bi- 

 serial. To each cell there are two appendages, of which the inner- 

 most is in the form of pincers fixed at the base, and the other is 

 furnished with a long moveable bristle. The tentacula are propor- 

 tionably long and arranged in a funnel-shaped circle ; their number 

 varies from twelve to sixteen. The gullet is short, coloured like the 

 stomach, and there is no valve in the middle of its course. There 

 are cilia at the pylorus of the stomach, but no gizzard. The intes- 

 tine is short like the gullet. The retractor muscles are easily to be 

 distinguished. Van Beneden. 



4. C. REPTANs, creeping, dichotomous ; cells ivith an oblique 

 aperture armed with short spines at the top. Ellis. 



Plate LVIII. Fig. 3, 4. 



Creeping Coralline, Ellis Corall. 37, pi. 20, no. 3, fig. h. B. — Sertularia reptans, Lin. 

 Syst. 1315. Fuhnic. Faun. Grcenl. 445. — S. renews. Be rl\ Syn. i. 220. — Cellularia 

 reptans, Pall. Elench. 73. Flem. Br. Anim. 540. Johns. Brit. Zoopli. 291, pi. 

 38, fig. 3, 4. Couch Zooph. Comw. 57: Com. Faun. iii. 127, pi. 23, fig. 3. Reid 

 in Ann. and Mag. N. Hist. xvi. 385. — Cellaria reptans, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 

 23. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. 2d. edit. ii. 191. .Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 262. 

 — Crisia reptans, Lamour. Corall. 60. Temifleton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 469. — 

 BiceUaria reptans, Blainv. Actinolog. 459. 



Hab. On Flustra foliacea and other submarine bodies, especially 

 alga3, common. 



Similar to the preceding in form and mode of growth, but its 

 spreading tufts cover in general a larger space, and are more densely 

 matted. The radical tubes are flexuous, corneous, and divided at 

 the extremity into two or three small knob-like processes. Branches 

 linear, plane, jointed at their origins, composed of two rows of semi- 

 alternate oval cells, with an oblique subterminal aperture level with 

 the surface, and armed with several short brittle spines. Ellis re- 

 presents only two spines to each cell, and Pallas follows him in his 

 description, but they are commonly more numerous. Mr. Couch 



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