200 ZOOPHYTES. 



great ; and added to these, the circumstances concomitant on their pro- 

 pagation. I shall speak very briefly of both exactly as they have occurred 

 to me. 



§ 1. Sertularia antennina — Lobster's Horn* — This product rises 

 as a single slender stem, ten inches high, profusely clothed -with short, de- 

 licate twigs, slightly incurving towards it, the whole being of a reddish or 

 orange colour. The twigs environ the stem in a successive series of sets, 

 ascending upwards, consisting of four in each, in alternate opposite pairs ; 

 that is, a twig of the pair opposite to its fellow, and the next pair of the 

 same kind somewhat higher. The product is of a light feathery character ; 

 therefore, a group composed as sometimes seen of 100 or 150 specimens, 

 resembles a rich flexible plume waving gracefully amidst the water. One 

 feather of the plume is represented Plate XXXIX. fig. 1. 



Low cells or denticles seated on the twigs are inhabited by very mi- 

 nute greenish hydrse, with 14 rather slender muricate tentacula, their 

 roots apparently connected by a web formed of the expanded disc. These 

 tentacula clasp suddenly together like some others. The hydra exhibits 

 no prominent peculiarities. It proves extremely delicate, is seldom found 

 alive, and it declines speedily. Both the stem and the twigs are distinctly 

 articulated. If I have entered on no detail regarding this feature of the 

 skeleton of zoophytes, it is because other authors have devoted so much 

 attention to the subject. Besides, it is only in the dead and decaying spe- 

 cimen, not while it is beautiful and luxuriant, full of vigorous animation, 

 that articulations can be discovered. Probably a few examples may be 

 afterwards given for general illustration. The articulations of the Sertv- 

 Inria antennina are distinct ; a spinous prolongation sometimes extends 

 from the origin of those of the twig. Also, in some of the most perfect 



* Ellis, referriog to Ray'as having distiDguished two species, unites them in one. Lin- 

 nmus seems to view the one only as a variety of the other. Lamarck and M. de Blain- 

 ville, a very acute naturalist, name the species as 1. Antennularia indivisa; 2. Antennu- 

 laria ramosa. Lamouroux, under his generic nsxa^ Nemertesia — 1. Antennina; 2. Ka- 

 raosa ; 3. Janini. Dr Fleming, Antennularia antennina. 



