102 ZOOPHYTES. 



embarrassment : nor have I been able to free myself of it with all dili- 

 gence ; for I feel infinitely perplexed, first, in endeavouring to determine 

 the identity of my specimens with any already described by skilful 

 authors; secondly, in endeavouring to distinguish between species and 

 varieties. 



As I cannot affirm with confidence my success in either attempt, I 

 shall solicit the reader's permission to lay a copious narrative before him, 

 trusting, as on other occasions, to indemnity for failure, in the legal maxim, 

 quod superflua non nocenf. 



The extraordinary modification of animal and vegetable form and 

 aspect, from climate, position, and the profusion or deficiency of aliment, 

 are always ready to disturb our conclusions : Nor does the great Creator 

 seem to have decreed an absolute uniformity of condition to all his works, 

 subsisting under a noted diversity of circumstances. 



The Alcyonella is fixed, while the Cristatella is free. 



(1.) Alcyonella stagnorum. — Plate XXIX. — About the middle 

 of summer, the under surface of the Water Plantain growing in lakes and 

 ponds, is frequently invested by a gelatinous stratum, studded with very 

 numerous white specks, as beheld with the naked eye. 



In earlier stages this peculiar stratum, especially when of smaller ex- 

 tent, manifests a tendency to a stellate figure, not wholly obliterated by 

 diffusion over the entire surface capable of receiving it, but then less de- 

 cided than when confined to patches of subordinate size. It somewhat re- 

 sembles the formation of the Flustra membranacea in its earlier stages, as 

 investing the Laminaria digitata previously adverted to, where the stellate 

 figure is lost also with age. — Plate XXIX. fig. 1. 



I conclude that fig. 2, on the edge of a leaf belongs to the same spe- 

 cies, but farther advanced. 



This product occurs of all dimensions, from minute gelatinous spots 

 to patches equalling an area of two or three square inches. It overspreads 

 one surface of the leaf of the growing water plantain, and frequently both 

 sides of the fallen leaves, or those still pendent, sunk among the mud from 

 their weight. There is considerable resemblance in this and in some 



