CRISTATELLIDyE : CRISTATELLA. 



389 



earlier stages the Cristatella mirabilis seems to be of a circular 

 figure, and in its most mature state tbere is a margin projecting 

 beyond the root of the polypi." Dalyell. 



Fig. 72. 



To illustrate this description of Sir J. G. Dalyell, I have given 

 copies, of the beautiful figures of M. Turpiu in Plate 73, for there 

 can surely be scarce a question of the identity of the continental and 

 British zoophyte. Turpin's figures, it is to be noticed, were drawn 

 from young or slightly developed specimens; a mature polypidom, 

 with its three hundred individuals, must indeed present to the 

 naturalist a spectacle of such singular curiosity and beauty, as 

 perhaps can meet its superior or rival in no other creature. I am 

 unwilling to borrow, from the memoirs of the foreign authors, any 

 additions to Sir J. Gr. Dalyell's short history, for I am aware of the 

 confusion to which such a practice has occasionally led, but no harm 

 can arise from the mention of some particulars which are evidently 

 generical. I may state, then, that the tentacula are ciliated like 

 those of other ascidians ; the intestine has an oral and anal aperture, 

 the latter with a medial position ; and there is no trace of any organ 

 like what, in some other families of the order, has been reckoned an 



