112 Z. HYDIIOIDA. Hermia. 



the tentacula shorter than the enlarged heads of the branches. 



Gaertner. 



Vignette, No. 12, and Plate IV. Fig 1, 2. 

 Tubularia Corjaia, Turt. Gmel. iv. 668. Turt. Brit. Faun. 210. Stew. 



Elem. ii. 438. Bosc. Vers. iii. 91. Hydra ramosa, Fabric. Faun. 



Groenl. 348 Coryne Glandulosa, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 62. 2de 



edit. ii. 74. Fleming in Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 87, and viii. 295. Flem. 



Phil. Zool. ii. 616, tab. v. fig. 2. Flem. Brit. Anim. 533. Encyclop. 



Method, tab. 69. fig. 15, 16. Johnston in Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 253 ; 



and in Mag. Nat. Hist. v. 631. fig. 110. C. glanduleuse. Blainv. Ac- 



tinol. 471. pi. 85, fig. 3, 3 a Coryne, Lister in Phil. Trans, an. 



1834, p. 376. pi. 10. fig. 3. 

 Hah. On the under surface of stones between tide-marks ; on old 

 shells, and often parasitical on Tubularia indivisa. Isle of May ; and 

 on the Bell Rock on the coast of Angus, Rev. Dr Fleming. May- 

 bole, Ayrshire, 7?^?'. Geo. Gray. Brighton, J/r Z«>^e>-. Scarborough, 

 Mr Bean. Berwick Bay. 



Polypes adherent by a tubular fibre which creeps along the surface 

 of the object on which they grow, seldom an inch in height, irregu- 

 larly branched, the stem filiform, tubular, horny, subpellucid, wrink- 

 led and sometimes ringed at intervals, especially at the origin of the 

 branches, each of which is terminated with an oval or clubshaped 

 head of a reddish colour, and armed v.'ith short scattered tentacula 

 tipt with a globular apex. The ends of the branches are not perfo- 

 rated, but completely covered with a continuation of the horny sheath 

 of the stem. The animal can bend its armed heads at will, or give 

 to any separate tentaculura a distinct motion and direction, but all its 

 movements are very slow and leisured. 



When parasitical on Tubularia this zoophyte surrounds the stalks, 

 for the space of an inch or more, with a thick beard-like mossiness 

 composed of entangled corneous fibres, not coarser than a sewing 

 thread, and more irregularly branched than when the polypes have 

 greater freedom to spread. This variety is figured on Plate IV. Fig. 

 1, 2. The stem is filled with a pulpous medulla, enlarged in the 

 heads and continued up the tentacula, the round tips of which ap- 

 peared to be smooth and areolar under a magnifier, but Mr Lister 

 says they are covered with " short projections like blunt hairs," 

 " and it seems to be by their means that the polypi attach with a 

 touch, or release at will, substances that drift within their reach." 

 Mixed with the tentacula, on some heads, there are a few round and 

 larger bodies of a deep red colour in the centre with a transparent al- 

 buminous envelope : these are supported on a very short stalk, and 



are evidently the gemmules by which this .s])ecies is propagated. 



3 



