VIRGULARIA. 183 



tentacula ; each side of these organs is bordered by a row of about sixteen 

 subordinate extensile prongs or teeth, one also terminating the extremity. 

 The stomach within is exposed to view ; and the tendrils or vessels allud- 

 ed to in the hydra of the Lobularia descending below. Nothing of any of 

 these parts is seen in the contracted animal ; nor distinctly, unless consi- 

 derably enlarged, fig. 4. Only one is displayed, fig. 5, which is a lobe. 



The true position, whether vertical or horizontal, in its native abode, 

 is much controverted, which cannot be surprising when the form of the 

 Virgularia is beheld out of it. Judging by mutilated specimens, I long 

 concluded with many others, that, rooted by the lower extremity, it stood 

 erect. Probably, however, it lies flat on the ground, and there are some 

 reasons why it should be so. There is little doubt that resemblance 

 has a great influence on opinion, whence they who see a slender looking 

 stem below, with the portion above it diminish to a terminating point, 

 will compare it to a rush, or some slender vegetable product springing 

 from the earth. The bare bone, fig. 6, almost invariably protruding from 

 mutilated specimens, transiently viewed, is not very unlike a stem ; the 

 rest is contracted. Hence an erect position might be ascribed to the Vir- 

 gularia. 



Besides the large specimen mutilated, as already referred to, other 

 two occurred afterwards, with the lower extremity quite entire. One con- 

 sisted of a fragment extending several inches, occupied by the central bone 

 above, but descending three inches still lower by a fleshy cylinder, smooth, 

 soft, and flexible. The other was also a fragment about nine inches long, 

 six of which environed the bone ; but the remainder free of it, was smooth 

 and fleshy. The extremity was white, and there the figure somewhat irre- 

 gular. The fleshy prolongation of each being free of the bone, exactly re- 

 sembled a yellow worm, about an eighth of an inch in diameter. A Iarg< 

 proportion of the latter fragment, fig. 7, was smooth externally, nor did 

 the lobes visibly descend much more than an inch from the higher part of 

 the fragment where the bone was exposed. 



On decomposition the fragment did not prove so free of bone as had 

 been supposed, for, with decay of the flesh, it was discovered tapering 

 downwards, until resembling the tenuity and flexibility of a hair. Per- 



