426 L.\R SABELLARUM. 



imbedded thread- cells near its summit ; tentacles smooth, and when extended about 

 as long- as the body of the hydranth. 



GONOSOME. — Blastostyles cylindrical, slender. Planoblasts springing from 

 a point a little above the middle of the blastostyle in a sub-verticillate cluster of three 

 or four; manubrium about half as long as the vertical diameter of the umbrella- 

 cavity, with a constriction just above its oral extremity ; margin of umbrella with a 

 minute tubercle at the middle point between every two tentacles. 



Development of Gonosome. — July. 



Habitat. — Attached to the tubes of Sahellce round tlie orifice. 



Batliymetrical distribution. — Coralline zone. 



Locality. — North coast of Devonshire, Mr. Gosse and Mr. Ilincks. 



Under the name of Lar sahellannn Mr. Gosse described a certain enigmatical organism which 

 made its appearance in his aquarium, growing round the orifice of the tube of one of the 

 sea-worms [Sabella). He tells us that from a creeping network of filaments which extended 

 round the mouth of the Sabella tube there sprang numerous irregularly fusiform bodies, each 

 terminating distally in a head-like lobe, immediately below which were two long tentacles. The 

 terminal lobe is described as capable of opening itself out by the separation of two broad 

 flattened lips, which then diverge from one another in the manner of " the leaves of a half- 

 opened book." 



The zooids of the colony are described as singularly energetic in their motions, and 

 Mr. Gosse gives a graphic account of the various forms and attitudes assumed by them. He 

 informs us that " about twenty bodies having a most ludicrously close resemblance to the human 

 figure, and as closely imitating certain human motions, were standing erect around the mouth of 

 the tube, when the Sabella had retired into its interior, and were incessantly tossing about their 



arms in the most energetic manner The head-lobe moved to and fro freely on the 



neck; the body swayed from side to side, but still more vigorously backward and forward, 

 frequently bending into an arch in either direction, while the long arms were widely expanded, 

 tossed wildly upward and then waved downward as if to imitate the actions of the most tumul- 

 tuous human passion." 



A characteristic figure, in which these various attitudes are represented, accompanies the 

 description. 



This description by Mr. Gosse contained, up to the present time, all that we knew of the 

 singular organism which formed the subject of it ; and though we had no information regarding 

 its gonosome, it was yet evident that Lar sabellaniiii was the trophosome of a hydroid which, 

 however anomalous, had (as Mr. Gosse himself recognised) its nearest immediate relations with 

 the GymnoUastea. 



Just, however, as the last sheet of the present work was on the point of going to press, I 

 received a letter from Mr. Hincks informing me that he had just dredged up a colony of Lar 

 sabellarum with its gonosome on the coast of North Devon. Mr. Hincks did not fail to profit 

 by the opportunity thus afforded of making a careful study of the animal, and it is from his 



