508 Zoological Society. 



drawings are intended to illustrate many of the different positions 

 of the pol3'pe in various conditions as to growth, expansion, &c. 



" This animal," Mr. Harvey remarks, " is evidently a Tubularia. 

 It is something like Tub. indivisa figured by Ellis, Plate XVI. no. 2. 

 fig. c, but differs in several particulars. The tube of Ellis's Tubu- 

 laria is jointed ; the head has a lateral groove or opening ; and the 

 central projection (which is an elongation of the membrane covering 

 the body) is much larger and higher, and is not surmounted by a 

 row of slight long feelers. This Tubularia (for which, as a distinc- 

 tion, I submit the term Tub. gracilis,) has the tube hollow through- 

 out and single ; the body has no lateral groove ; the central process 

 has a row of fine long feelers near its termiination, and placed round 

 the orifice : their office is to direct the food to the mouth. On the 

 circumference of the cup is a row of very long flexible feelers, having 

 much freedom of motion, and between each two of them is a smaller 

 red feeler ; from the circumference to the origin of the central pro- 

 cess are two or three confused rows of alternate white and red short 

 papillre, giving the animal much the appearance of a flower. 



" The powers of contraction and dilatation very much resemble 

 those of the Caryophyllia, which I have still alive, and which I have 

 kept for two years. Upon the slightest touch all the feelers are in- 

 stantly coiitracted ; but the shaking of the water does not at all in- 

 commode them. I ke))t several clusters in the same bowl with my 

 CaryophyUia ; but I found that, every time they came near it, (either 

 by being touched or by shaking the vessel) they were devoured : I 

 therefore, now keep them by themselves, but I fear that I shall not 

 be successful in preserving them, as the river tide cannot be imitated 

 in confinement. 



" The locality of this polype is very confined. The Dart floating 

 bridge is propelled upon two chains, about 6 feet distant from one 

 another, and stretching across the river. On the western chain not 

 a cluster could be seen, but on the eastern one there were upwards 

 of a hundred groups of them, in spite of the immense friction to 

 which they were exposed. They are only found within 100 feet of 

 the northern shore at low water. I have since observed the same 

 animals growing on tlie links over which the floating bridge at De- 

 vonport runs, and there they do not occupy a space exceeding 150 

 feet. 



" The most singular circumstance attending the growth of this 

 animal, and which I discovered entirely by accident, remains to be 

 mentioned. After I had kept the clusters in a large bowl for two 

 days, I observed the animals to droop and look unhealthy. On the 

 third day the heads were all thro^vn off, and lying on the bottom of 

 the vessel ; all the pink colouring matter was deposited in the form 

 of a cloud, and when it had stood quietly for two days, it became 

 a very fine powder. Thinking that the tubes were dead I was going 

 to throw them away, but I happened to be under the necessity of 

 quitting home for two days, and on my return I found a thin trans- 

 parent film being protruded from the top of every tube ; I then 

 changed the water every day, and in three days time every tube had 



