36 



It now only remains to furnish the specific title, and for 

 reasons which I shall explain hereafter, I have chosen that 

 ofpavida, and, as Victorella pavida, its characters may thus 

 be cited : 



Polypidom minute, confervoid, adherent, or semi-erect, 

 irregularly branching. Tentacles eight in number. No giz- 

 zard. Inhabiting brackish water, parasitic on the polypary 

 of Cordylophora lacustris. 



As is above intimated, I have so far only met with this 

 minute and very elegant little polyzoon attached to the poly- 

 pary of Cordylophora lacustris, and, to the unassisted eye, 

 the only visible indication of its presence is aiForded by the 

 appearance of, as it were, a more or less entangled mass of 

 confervoid filaments adherent to the jjrotective sheath of its 

 more robust though less highly organised supporter. The 

 assistance of the microscope thus becomes essential for the 

 elucidation of the true nature of the organism, and on the 

 removal and examination of a fragment of the filamentous 

 mass with the aid of that instrument, its true affinities are 

 immediately made apparent. Each slender filament now 

 proves to be a tiny tube containing a living organism of the 

 most delicate and complex structure, and which, on expan- 

 sion, is at once recognisable as a true representative of the 

 Infundibulate Polyzoa ; the presence, moreover, of the circlet 

 of protecting setee aiding still further to refer it to the Cte- 

 nostomatous section of that order. 



One of the most striking features connected with the life- 

 history of this little Polyzoon is its remarkably shy and 

 retiring habits, and hence my choice of the specific name 

 adopted. On first transferring a fragment from the aggre- 

 gate mass to a hollow slide or zoophyte-trough, for more 

 convenient microscopic examination, it at once retreats to 

 the remotest corner of its domicile, and many minutes, and 

 sometimes even hours, pass away before it again ventures to 

 display itself; on its doing so, however, the patient observer 

 is amply rewarded for the brief delay. A forward motion of 

 the tentacles first takes place, then the circlet of setse, in the 

 form of a fascia, appears beyond the orifice of the cell, 

 extended to their utmost, the tentacles push onward through 

 and beyond them, and in far less time than has been occu- 

 pied to record it, the little creature is expanded in its fullest 

 glory. A crown of eight long, delicate, and remarkably 

 flexible tentacula now surmounts the transparent stalk, and 

 a tiny yet rapid maelstrom responds to the rhythmical vibra- 

 tion of the many thousand scarce visible cilia which clothe 

 them, engulphing and hurrying away to a living tomb such 



