EUDENDRIUM RACEMOSUM. 341 



'*^^ 10. EUDENDRIUM RACEMOSUM, CaVoHui, Sp. 



Sertularia racemosa, — Cttvolini, Mem. dei Pol. Mar., Sprcngel's German translation, p. 73, 



tab. vi, fig. 1, &c. 



TROPHOSOME.— HrDROCAULUs much and irregularly branched, attaining a 

 height of six or seven inches ; perisarc annulated on the ultimate ramuli for some 

 distance just below tlie hydranths. Htdranths with about thirty tentacles. 



GONOSOME. — Male gonophores three-, four-, or five-chambered in umbel-like 

 clusters on atrophied hydranths ; female gonophores scattered in racemose groups on 

 the stems of atrophied hydranths. 



Colour. — Hydranths reddisli ; perisarc reddish brown ; female gonophores purpHsh red. 



Development of Gonosome. — Spring and summer. 



Habitat. — On submerged rocks. 



Localiti/. — Caves of Gajola, Bay of Naples, Cavolini. 



After Trembley and Ellis there is no naturalist of the last century whose claims as an original 

 and accurate observer of the Hydroida rank so high as those of Filippi Cavolini; for like Ellis 

 he studied the animals in their native haunts along the sea-shore, and described and drew them, 

 not from dead and desiccated specimens, but in all the perfection and marvellous beauty of their 

 living forms. 



Among the hydroids studied by the celebrated Neapolitan naturalist was the present 

 species, of which he has given us a careful and elaborate description and excellent figures. It is 

 true that in some points he falls into errors of interpretation, as may well be expected when we 

 bear in mind the state of hydroid zoology at the period when he wrote. Thus, having observed 

 in his hydroid both male and female gonophores, and, in accordance with the general views of 

 the zoologists of that day, believing those bodies to be eggs, he describes the species as producing 

 eggs of two kinds — eggs in racemes and eggs in umbels. His description, however, leaves little 

 to be desired. It is from it that I have selected the characters out of which the diagnosis here 

 given has been framed. 



There can be no doubt that Eudendrium racemosnm is closely allied to the Eudendrium 

 rnmoaum of Linnaeus, the " small ramified tubular coralline " of Ellis. It would appear to differ 

 from it chiefly by its more irregular ramification, and by the more numerous chambers of the 

 male gonophores. 



