CASH ON TliJi ilOTIFERA. 190 



of form, but it perhaps surpasses that fine species in elegance and grace. 

 It may be compared to a long tubular flower with a five-angled petal, 

 somewhat like that of a Convolvulus, the tube swollen, and contracted be- 

 low the lip, and seated on the end of a long stalk." He gives the dimen- 

 sions of this beautiful Floscule, as measured by himself from an average 

 specimen, as follows — " Height of the case, -y^^-th of an inch ; height of 

 foot, 1 oo^th ; of foot and body to tip of tallest petal, g-Vth ; of entire animal 

 from base of tube to tip of longest bristles, so far as they can be traced, 

 about yV^^- They are, however, very variable in size, but not so large in 

 any of the species as to be distinctly perceptible to the naked eye." The 

 body, he goes on to say, " is sub-oval, sometimes very regular, but at 

 other times a little enlarging at the upper end. Above this there is a 

 constriction or neck, but not so well-defined a collar as in Stephanoceros. 

 From this neck, the beautiful flower-like disc opens, an expanse of the 

 most exquisitely delicate and brilliantly transparent membrane, which forms 

 five blunt points, equidistant and somewhat rising, so as to give a trumpet- 

 like contour to the outline. One of the angular projections of the disc is 

 considerably higher than the rest, and this is the dorsal one, so that the 

 plane of the five lobes is not horizontal, but oblique, facing forwards. A 

 very remarkable feature in the animal, and one to which it owes much of 

 its peculiar elegance, is, that each knob is beset with straight bristles of 

 exceeding slenderness, and of great length, which are not set in one plane, 

 but radiate in every direction. Ehrenberg says there are from five to 

 eight on each angle, but probably the poverty of his instruments deceived 

 him, for I have counted from forty to fifty on each knob. When the animal 

 contracts all the bristles are drawn parallel into a single pencil, and con- 

 cealed within the body ; and this arrangement is well seen as they slowly 

 protrude in the act of eversion. They are motionless when expanded, but 

 while protruding, and in the instant of expanding (falling, as Mr. Slack 

 says, on all sides in a graceful shower,) the pencil is seen to be agitated 

 with a close and rapid thrill or wave, which runs along it, and looks much 

 like the flickering of a candle flame. It ceases the instant the disc is ex- 

 panded." 



Whilst this paper was in course of preparation I made an excursion to 

 Hill Cliff— an attractive spot about three miles from Warrington— with other 

 members of the Field Naturalists' Society ; and, on coming to a small 

 pool in the field near the entrance to the Dingle, I thought it advisable, 

 although the place did not seem to promise much, to fill a bottle with 



