20 BOTRYLLID^. 



to twenty or more individuals, yellowish and reddisli. Branchial 

 aperture white, surrounded by a circle of broad ferruginous spots; 

 a red spot on the centre of each individual. Mass often measur- 

 ing several inches across; individuals one-twentieth of an inch 

 in diameter. 



fleshy, coral-like substance; in a letter to Mr. Peter Collinson, F.R.S., from Dr. 

 Albert Schlosser, M.D., F.RS. , with some observations on it communicated to 

 Mr. Collinson by Mr. John Ellis, F.RS." Being short, we quote it: — 



" ' Dear Sir, — I hired some fishermen to dredge for me in this harbour, in order to 

 examine the small English coral, or CoraUium tiostras of Ray's " SjTiopsis," recent 

 in the microscope. The first time they hauled in the dredge, I discovered a most 

 extraordinary sea production surrounding the stem of an old Fucus teres: it was 

 of a hardish but fleshy substance, and more than an inch thick, of a light brown 

 or ash-colour, the whole surface covered over with bright yellow, shining, and 

 star-like bodies, which induced me to believe it to be an undescribed species of 

 Alcyonium. I put it immediately into a bucket of sea-water, expecting every 

 moment that the polypes, which I thought to lodge in those little stars, would 

 extend and shew themselves like those of the Alcyonium No. 2 of Ray's " Sy- 

 nopsis," commonly called " dead man's hand ;" but after more than half-an-hour's 

 attention, the vessel lying very quiet all the time, I did not perceive the least ap- 

 pearance of any polypes ; upon which I brought them to shore in the sea- water? 

 and then, by means of my microscope, I discovered every one of those stars to be 

 a true animal, and much more beautiful than any polype, but quite of a different 

 structure, which I shall now describe to you. 



" ' Every one of those stars is composed of many thin hollow radii, of a pear-shape 

 •form, from five to twelve or more in number, all united intimately at their smaller 

 end ; every radius appears broad at the extreme part from the centre, and a little 

 convex in the middle of this raised broad part. When the animal is alive there 

 appears a circular little hole, which contracts and opens itself frequently. All the 

 radii are of this structure ; but their common centre, which is formed by a com- 

 bination of the small converging extremities, exhibits an opening of a circular, 

 oval, or oblong figure, forming a kind of rising rim like a cup, which, M'hen the 

 animal is alive and at rest, contracts and expands itself to many different degrees, 

 with great alertness and velocity, though sometimes it remains a great while ex- 

 panded or contracted. In all these holes, the central large one, as well as the 

 smaller ones, (which last I take to be the mouths of the animals,) T could not per- 

 ceive any tentacula, or claws, on the outside ; but, by looking into them very nar- 

 rowly, I saw something like very tender little fibres moving at the bottom of their 

 insides. 



'"By comparing and examining all the various pieces I had collected of this fleshy 

 substance, with its shining stars, I observed that the size and colour, as well as 

 the very figure of these stars, varied greatly, but the structure of the leaf-like 

 radii, and that of their mouths, and their motions, were perfectly the same in 

 every one individual. , 



