DESCRIPTION OF TWO NEW ZOOPHYTES. 177 



XVL — Description of two new species of Sertularian Zoop)hi/tes, 

 found on the coast of Nortlimnherland. By Joshua Alder, 



Esq.* 



Plumularia halecioides. pi. XIo;. > 



Polypary about an inch high, irregularly branched. Stem 

 compound, giving off branches, which are also compound 

 for a part of their length, becoming single as they rise 

 upwards, and having two joints above the insertion of 

 each branchlet or pinna; pinna3 alternate, frequently 

 short, terminating in a single cell, but in full-grown and 

 luxuriant specimens extending to a greater length, and 

 bearing three or four rather distant, moderately sized, 

 cup-formed cells on the upper side. There are two, or 

 occasionally three, joints at the origin of each pinna, as 

 well as between the cells, and a small tubule above and 

 another below each cell. Sometimes there is a tubule on 

 the stem above the origin of the pinna. The polypes are 

 rather large in proportion to the cell, rising a little out of 

 it, and having from fourteen to eighteen muricated ten- 

 tacles. The ovicapsules are large, ovate, with a broad 

 truncated top, and are strongly ribbed or wrinkled trans- 

 versely ; they are set on the stem singly or in clusters by 

 a very short pedicle. 

 I found two specimens of this very distinct and beautiful lit- 

 tle Plumularia. on stones near low-water mark, at Cullercoats, 

 in the summer of 1857, and again met with it at the same place 

 in the follov^dng j^ear. Mr. Albany Hancock has also obtained 

 it at Koker. In its young state, or when partially denuded of 

 its cells, it has very much the appearance of a Halecium^ which 

 genus it resembles in its mode of growth. The ovicapsules are 

 similar to those of Camjmnularia Johnstoni — the only instance 

 within ray knowledge of this form of capsule being found in a 

 Plumularia. Pressed between plates of glass, the capsules showed 



* Reprintcrl from the "Annals Nat. Hist.," s. 8, vol. iii,, p. 353. 

 VOL. IV. PT. II. X 



