248 ZOOPHYTES. 



The clusters are generated and formed after a singular manner. One 

 may consist of sixteen or twenty cells, winding in pairs up a branch in a 

 slight spiral direction. As the vegetation of the obtuse extremity of the 

 branch advances, the clusters originate on it in prominences still lower and 

 nearer the root. The first or lowest pair of cells is the largest ; the other 

 pairs, in winding up the stem, diminish gradually to extreme minuteness. 

 Thus did one series exhibit 8 pair or 16 originating cells : another 3 pair 

 only, being probably in an earlier stage. As they advance, they become 

 greenish or yellowish to the eye, and on approaching maturity, the in- 

 cluded embryo becomes perceptible. 



The subsistence and maturity of a lower cluster seems to be essen- 

 tial for the propagation and evolution of a higher cluster. This may af- 

 ford room for speculation, whether the vital principle is not awakened in 

 the germ of the hydra, or whether some depositation of elements, to be 

 thus brought to maturity, be not effected by the vigour of the parts, as the 

 vegetative power advances the stem whereon the new series shall originate. 



Besides the groups dispersed on this product, in various numbers, 

 sometimes a straggling single cell may be seen. 



A yellowish or greenish colour pervades the whole zoophyte. The 

 clusters are yellow : the cell transparent, its tenant faint yellow, as is evi- 

 dent while contracted within. 



The product appears as a parasite, or rooted independently on solid 

 substances. 



I am informed that it is abundant in some of the Scotish Seas. But 

 I have never found it so. On the contrary, it has been rare. 



Plate L. Fig. 1. Valeria imbricata. 



2. The same, enlarged. 



3. Hydra, enlarged, 



^ 2. Valkeria cuscuta. — Dodder Coralline. — Plate LI. Figs. 1, 2. 

 — Another cluster-zoophyte, much more common than the preceding, ap- 

 pears as a very minute pendulous chain, of a greyish colour to the naked 

 eye. I have never seen it erect, its slenderness and flexibility, indeed, being 



