110 Z. HYDROIDA. Tubularia. 



each tube assumes somewhat the appearance of the wind-pipe of a 

 small bird. In var. b, the tubes are distinguished by being- slightly 

 branched, the branches coming- off irregularly and at vai'ious angles. 

 They rise to about 3 inches in height, and are smooth in a fresh state, 

 but when dried exhibit the annulations distinctly, especially at the 

 origin of the branches. The naked body of the polypes is rose-red, 

 more or less deeply tinted, while the tentacula are milk-white, or 

 sometimes faintly tinged with red. Of these there are two series : 

 one round the oral aperture composed of short threads usually held in 

 an erect position ; the other forms a circle round the most bulging 

 part of the body, and consists of more than 20 long filaments which 

 spread like rays from a centre, or droop elegantly, being usually held 

 still, or allowed listlessly to follow the undulations of the water. 

 When the polypes are all displayed, they afford a very interesting 

 and pretty spectacle, equalled by no other species I have seen, the 

 crimson heads contrasting finely with their white polypidoms, es- 

 pecially when loaded with the gemmules which pullulate from the 

 inner side of the bases of the inferior tentacula. When few in num- 

 ber and immature these gemmules are sessile and separate, but in 

 their progress to evolution they form grape-like clusters : each sepa- 

 rate gemmule is of a roundish or oval shape, consisting of a white al- 

 buminous coat with a dark red cylindrical centre. — Plate IV. Fig. 5. 

 According to Agardh and Lamouroux the Tubularia muscoides of 

 Linnaeus is distinct from the T. Larynx of Ellis and Solander, but 

 his specific character — " T. cuhnis subdicJiotomis, totis annuloso-ru- 

 gosis," — answers sufficiently to our b in a dried state to induce me to 

 quote it as a synonyme, the more so as Linnaeus refers to Ellis's fi- 

 gure for a representation of what he intended. The Tubularia po- 

 lyceps of Sir J. G. Dalyell in Rep. Brit. Assoc, an. 1834, p 601, and 

 Edin. New. Phil. Journ. xxi. 93, appears to be referable to the same 

 variety. From the observations of this ingenious naturalist we must 

 infer that the mimher o\ tentacula is an uncertain character : he says, 

 " a specimen had originally 21 tentacula, but only 16 were renovated 

 with the second head ; and with the seventh they had diminished to 

 six. 



* * Tubes ramous. (Eudendrium, Ehrenberg.) 

 t3. T. RAMOSA, tube single, irregularly branched, the branches 

 erecto-patent, ringed and rather narrower at their origins : poly- 

 pes with a single series oj" tentacula. J. Ellis. 



Small ramified tubular coralline, Ellis, Corall. 31, No. 3, tab. 16, fig. a ; and 

 tab. 17, fig. a, A Tubularia trichoides, Pall. Elencb. 84. T. 



