CAMPANULARIA. 213 



inorganic parts were suflSciently diaphanous, a hydra has always appeared 

 to be connected with the pith. Here the animal is contained entirely 

 within its transparent bell, which is wide and capacious, in proportion to 

 the dimensions of the body, and from hence it ascends to display from 24 

 to 30 deeply muricate tentacula over the edge. The neck and head are 

 very long, within which the stomach is seen descending quite to the bot- 

 tom, and the mouth appears above, generally contracted, in a hemisphe- 

 rical form ; but sometimes dilated like a cup. This is a very timid animal. 

 It retreats suddenly within, from complete expansion, and crouches down 

 to the bottom, where it is clearly exposed in its diaphanous habitation. — 

 Figs. 2, 3. 



The branches of many specimens are deeply indented by from five to 

 nine whirls, at the forking of the limbs from each other : and similar 

 whirls indent the twig immediately under each bell. But numbers 

 are not so distinguished ; they bear no such whirling ; whence I am dis- 

 posed to infer, that there are species or varieties with which I am not yet 

 familiar. These whirls do not constitute a spiral ; nor does any part of 

 the product relax as a spring or screw, which might be inferred from the 

 descriptions of naturalists. I have never witnessed anything of the kind 

 among zoophytes. All that I have seen are either simply flexible or they 

 are rigid. 



This coralline is of great luxuriance. Before a young specimen had 

 rose an inch, it bore 56 hydrae. One, nine inches high, bears above 1200. 

 All are of light grey colour. The product is white in its origin or earlier 

 stages ; smaller subjects remain so. Their formation is by divergence in 

 the same plane ; but the formation of adults is by branches, springing from 

 around the stem, and shortening as higher above the root. 



The decaying extremities of adults are sometimes regenerated, when 

 new twigs together with the hydrse are perfectly white. Now the ex- 

 treme tenuity of the bell completely exposes the progress of the included 

 embryo. When matured here, as well as when recovered in perfection 

 from the sea, the animal proves of delicate nature, surviving but a short 

 time. 



Soon after its decay, the bell falls also, which proves the inconsis- 



