25 



seem to have been met with by other observers, although, they 

 are plentiful in the localities indicated. 



Shepheardella fusiformis (Shrubsole) is also a new species. 

 It forms a spindle shaped tube of mud having an opening for 

 business purposes at both ends. It has probably escaped notice 

 till recently, by its habit of not lifting itself out of the mud when 

 in a bottle or jar, as the others do. 



All the foregoing animals employ mud as the clothing 

 material. The Foraminifera greatly improve upon this plan by 

 making use of the lime which the sea water holds in solution for 

 the corstruction of their beautiful and protective habitations. 

 Naturally they are influenced by their environment, and therefore 

 it is not surprising that those of this order which live in muddy 

 rills should not be able to avoid impurities which are manifested by 

 the dingy aspect of their shells. Other members of this class, 

 the Radiolaria, disregarding both mud and lime as building 

 materials, make use of silica in the construction of their basket- 

 like abodes. These are not abundant in British waters. The 

 one which occasionally appears in the estuary of the Thames and 

 along the South Coast has been pronounced by Hasckel to be a 

 new form. 



In oi'der to get anything like a proper idea of their life, it is 

 needful to leave the marshes and ramble along the beach, or better 

 still follow the ebbing tide as far as possible. There, in the rock 

 pools and attached to stones or rocks, will be seen Tertulavia and 

 other representatives of the Hydrozoa, which, because of their 

 somewhat plant-like form, the majority of seaside visitors believe 

 to be seaweeds. 



Examination shows each frond-like expansion to be a self- 

 supporting colony, most of the units of which gather and prepare 

 food for the benefit of the whole. They provide sufficient for 

 themselves ; for the growth of the colony by budding ; and for 

 the sustenance of those individuals which assume the form and 

 functions, together with the limitations, of ovarian capsules. 



Prom these capsules, the ova are emitted when mature in the 

 form of active ciliated oval bodies known as planules, which, in 

 time, and if able to steer clear of accidents, settle down and form 

 new colonies. 



Other Hydroid Zoophytes found on our shores present 

 many points of great interest and beauty. (Figui'es of various 

 genera were shown in illustration.) Singular indeed is the 

 arrangement whereby the reproduction elements of Syncaime, for 

 instance, assume the form of jelly fishes which in due time are 



