hydroid zoophytes. 47 



Plumulaeia pinnata. 



Belonging to another genus of feathery Corallines, which 

 is thus described by Johnston : — " Polypidom plant-hke, 

 rooted, simple or branched, the shoots and offsets plumous ; 

 cells small, sessile, unilateral, usually seated in the axillae 

 of a horny spine; vesicles scattered, unilateral. Polypes 

 hydraform.^' 



Mr. Gosse has made this beautiful Zoophyte the subject 

 of some interesthig observations, which will be best detailed 

 in his own words, nearly entire. " A tuft of weed, that I 

 had pulled off from the side of one of the rock -pools, and 

 brought home screwed in a bit of paper, was almost covered 

 with the elegant plumes of Plumulanajnnnata. I put it into 

 sea-water as soon as I arrived at home, after it had been out 

 of the water about eight hours, carried within my hat. When 

 I came to examine it, many of the polypes appeared alive, 

 though contracted. Many of the lower stalks were nearly 

 denuded of branches, except at their tips; but were densely 

 crowded for the most of their length with ovigerous vesi- 

 cles. These are placed in a single series, on the upper side 

 of the arching stems, as thickly as they can stand, about 

 twenty-five on each. By a single series I mean that they are 

 all seated on one side of the stem, and all point the same way. 



