442 Mr. W. Thomson on some British Zoophytes. 



'>'■ orientali. — v. s. in kerb. Hook., Nov. Holl. (Sieber), Eivei' Hast- 

 ings (Fraser), Port Macquane (Backhouse), Sydney (hort. bdt-. 

 cult.). — In herb. Heward, Illawaira (A. Cunningham). i^nrMaf 



Bauei-^s figure, above referred to, gives an excellent represen- 

 tation of this plant when in fruit : at first, however, the younger 

 flowering shoots assume the appearance of very branching pani- 

 cles, the lower ramifications being alternate, the upper ones 

 opposite and dichotomously branching, with a single flower in 

 the intervals ; they are about 3 inches long, but when the fruit 

 becomes ripened, they attain a length of 6 or 10 inches, and are 

 much more deflexed than the axillary leaf from which they 

 spring : most of the bracts fall away, but others, especially the 

 lower ones, grow ultimately into leaves : the pedicels are 2 lines 

 long in flower, and 3 lines in fruit ; the calyx is f line long ; the 

 corolla 2 lines in length, and is said to be of a bluish lilac 

 colour: it flowers in October : the berry is Inline in diameter*. 



XLII. — Notes on some British Zoophytes. By Wyville Thomson, 

 F.R.P.S. &c., Lecturer on Botany, Univ. and Marischal College, 

 Aberdeen. 



[With a Plate.] 



Before describing what I consider as an addition to an obscure 

 group of zoophytes allied to the Sertulariadce, I shall premise a 

 few remarks on the peculiarities of one of its immediate neigh- 

 ][)ours — Coppinia arcta. I shall do this in order to illustrate 

 more fully the relations of the new genus. 



Coppinia difi'ers from all other known full-grown Sertulariada 

 in having no common axis to its polypidom. Each polyp seems 

 to be possessed of a separate curved tube, one extremity free and 

 of a stout horny consistence, the other somewhat flask-shaped, 

 much thinner, and imbedded in a coherent mass of horny gra- 

 nules. This spongy matrix is hollowed out into a layer of mi- 

 nute areolar chambers. 



Additions to the colony appear to take place by the budding 

 of the hydrje at the base of the tube-like cell, by which process 

 a new hydra is formed, which is separated from its parent, 

 secretes a tube-cell of its own, and ultimately excretes a quantity 

 of granular matter which pushes it back still further from the 

 rest of the community. 



This interstitial propagation goes on only to a certain extent, 



* Analytical details of this species will be given in a supplementary 

 plate, in the Illust. of South Amer. Plants. 



