MISCELLANEOUS. 61 



he testified greater surprise and interest than in those to be witnessed of 

 any other zoophyte. — Fig. 8. 



I have frequently doubted whether the semblance of a web connect- 

 ing the roots of the tentacula, might not be an illusion. In such minute 

 animals, the observer is apt to be deceived ; and my opinion of the fact 

 has vacillated, from inability to satisfy myself under what might be deemed 

 favourable conditions. However, the learned Professor Van Beneden of 

 Louvaine, if I be not mistaken, admits this as a portion of the organiza- 

 tion. At the same time, some slight difference seems to have been be- 

 tween his specimens and mine. 



I can say nothing from personal experience of the mode whereby 

 the subsequent generations of this product are perpetuated. That belongs 

 to others. 



Its increment certainly advances by the evolution of new hydra? from 

 the extremities, which are probably all tubular, after the fashion of the 

 Tubularia and Sertularia. Early accessions by the adult, that is, by a spe- 

 cimen composed of several hydrse, consist simply of a globular head, con- 

 nected to the preceding parts by a short neck or pedicle. When a little 

 further advanced, it is more of an elongated figure The progress of in- 

 crement in its later stages is better shewn by larger specimens. There, 

 the highest germination in point of position, is the last to originate, fig. 12. 

 An obtuse bulb, seated on a pedicle, developes as a new hydra. What 

 was a mere stump or prolongation on June 7, fig. 10, a, had become a 

 perfect hydra on June 12, fig. 11, a. At this time a new prolongation 

 was advancing beyond it. 



A very frequent character of this product in maturity, is the evolution 

 of subordinate parts from only one side of the stem. It is always meagre. 



A course of observations is hardly practicable, from the rarity of ma- 

 ture specimens, and from such subjects being encumbered with extraneous 

 matter. The Pedicellina is readily procured as a single animal, growing 

 erect from a solid substance, and then it is in an early stage. In later 

 stages it is pendent, from some edge or extremity being too weak and 

 flexible, like the Sertularia cuscuta, to sustain itself vertically. Now, it 

 is white, very small, with some hydroe on twigs or pedicles. The lowest 



