PAVONARIA. 203 
Fort William, amidst the magnificent scenery of the High- 
land Isles, they are in some danger of forgetting even the 
submerged Pavonaria, and the thousand wonders of the 
mighty deep. It is, however, a wonderful creature. Many 
of our zoophytes are sufficiently minute, and require micro- 
scopic aid ere we can be enraptured with their beauty: but 
this is a giant—a Goliath of Gath—a marine Saul amidst 
the pigmean people, a living rod of four feet im length, 
thickly beset with living buds and blossoms. The Neapo- 
litan fishermen call it penna del pesce pavone, the pen or 
feather of the peacock-fish,—hence the name Pavonaria. 
Without going so far as Naples, however, we shall give the 
following, as part of the description of our Scottish Pavo- 
naria, by Professor EH. Forbes :—‘ The whole rod, when 
alive, invested with a fleshy skin, is very slimy. Its base 
or root is cylindrical, of a yellow colour, and terminating 
somewhat obtusely, and bulbous. The lowest polypes on 
the rod are very small, and in a single row on each side, 
but they gradually increase in size, and become more nume- 
rous, till they form oblique transverse rows of four, five, or 
six polypes in a row, the outermost being largest. The 
back of the rod is yellowish, smooth, and free from polypes. 
The polypiferous part is of a rose-colour. ach polype is 
