TUBULARIA. 3 



great incurvatures as they rise, bending at right angles, waving in serpen- 

 tine forms, or quitting and resuming their original direction. All enlarge 

 slightly upwards. 



The head is a hydra or polypus, the general nature of which extra- 

 ordinary race shall be afterwards illustrated. It consists of a central 

 pouch or stomach, amidst a row of tentacular organs, which may be con- 

 veniently denominated palpi, nearly as numerous as another external mar- 

 ginal circle of from 1 5 to 35 larger tentacula or feelers, the number vary- 

 ing according to the specimen. — Plate III. fig. 1, a, b. The orifice of the 

 stomach, rarely shown, when dilated exposes an internal dark red ring. 

 Interposed between these two rows of larger and lesser feelers, and ap- 

 parently originating from the external lower part of the stomach, are seen 

 the ovaria, resembling minute protuberances in the beginning, and pen- 

 dent clusters on reaching maturity. Their peculiar position in the vici- 

 nity of the stomach is a fact of much interest, when the analogies con- 

 necting the different species of hydra are investigated. 



But, notwithstanding the ornamental aspect of the product, and the 

 strict resemblance of the whole to a bouquet of vivid flowers from the 

 hand of nature, there is no uniformity in the quality or proportion of its 

 various parts ; nor are any definite principles affecting either its luxu- 

 riance or its meagreness sufficiently understood. — Plate II. figs. 1,2, 3, 4 ; 

 Plate III. fig. 1. 



The tallest specimens rise thirteen inches high, by about a line where 

 thickest, — the height of the stalk being thus equal to 156 times its 

 diameter; and the head expands 14 or 15 lines between the opposite 

 tips of the tentacula.* But the height and diameter, the general luxu- 

 riance and the fertility of the product, have no reciprocal dependence on 

 each other. The largest head is commonly borne by the largest stalk. 

 Some of the finest appear, nevertheless, on stems only two or three inches 

 high, very slender, and with scanty pith, the abundance of which substance 

 is for the most part essential to vigour. Recurvature of the tentacula 



* The finest specimens are always to be understood, when describing the dimensions 

 of animals. I speak only of tliose occurring to myself. 



