82 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



Dr. Jolinston more elegantly likens them to Greek 

 vases or urns. Mr, Gosse describes it in his " Devon- 

 shire Coast " as the " angled Laomedea," in allusion 

 to the zigzag form of the stem, which " shoots up from 

 a creeping root that meanders over the seaweed, every 

 angle of the stem bearing a glassy cell inhabited by a 

 many-tentacled polyp. ■'^ 



The gonozooids, like those of G. Johnstoni, have at- 

 tracted great attention from their singular beauty. Mr. 

 Gosse* says, " So exquisitely delicate is the tiny crea- 

 ture, so transparent, so shadowy, that a friend to whom 

 I showed it aptly called it the soul of the zoophyte.^' 



The 0. geniculata generally grows in forest-like 

 masses. The species is phosphorescent, and shows this 

 quality strongly if agitated in the dark, the spectacle 

 " bearing a resemblance sufficiently striking to the 

 illumination of a city, or rather to the gas jets of some 

 figure of a crown or V. R. adorning the house of a 

 loyal citizen on a gala night ; the more because of the 

 momentary extinction and relighting of the flames 

 here and there, and the manner in which the successive 

 ignition appears to run rapidly from part to part." 



2. 0. GELATiNosA, Pal. Plate IV. fig. 4. 



Cymodocea simplex (Lamx., R. Q. C, G. J.), Sertu- 

 laria gelatinosa (Pal., Flem., Stew., Bosc), Laomedea 

 gelatinosa {Lamx., De B., G. J., T. H., D. L., P. H. G., 

 McA.), Campanularia gelatinosa {L. K.). 



Hab.: Exmouth {Eincks) ; Cornwall {G. W. P.). 

 " In such abundance in the Solway that it is a nui- 

 sance " (Sir W. Jardine) ; Ayrshire {D. L.) ; St. An- 

 drew's (McI.) ; Liverpool (Collingivood), Menai Straits 

 {A. S.P.), &c. Height 8 — JO in. Stem compound, 

 * " Devonshire Coast," 84. 



