CORYNID^E : CLAVA. 31 



which are usually shorter than the body, and not always of equal 

 lengths. In gravid individuals the oviform capsules hang, on a 

 scarcely perceptible pedicle, from the bases of the lower tentacula in 

 several clusters, or, sometimes, in one cluster only : they are naked 

 and fleshy, of a round or elliptical figure, rose-coloured with a darker 

 centre, and large in proportion to the animal. 



Towards the roots of the tentacula we can frequently observe a 

 reddish spot, which probably indicates the position of the stomach ; 

 and a dusky line prolonged down the centre of the body appears to 

 show that the latter is hollow, the canal being doubtless intestinal. 

 The tentacula are marked with a similar line : unlike those of the 

 Hydra they are smooth, or merely crenulate, but like them they are 

 capable of being shortened and elongated at will, though to a less 

 extent. The form of the body is also varied at pleasure, but all its 

 motions are slow, and indicate a very inferior degree of irritability. 

 The apex projects ordinarily, from amid the tentacula, in the form 

 of a conical snout without any visible aperture ; but, as Dr. Cold- 

 stream correctly says, " after having been kept in small vessels of 

 sea-water for some hours, without renewal of the water, some of the 

 animals protrude the inner surface of the mouth, so as to present a 

 convex disk, with the tentacula ranged round it." 



The young are of the same colour and textaire as the parent : at 

 first they resemble little smooth rounded tubercles, which gradually 

 elongate, and soon acquire one, then two, three, or four tentacula, 

 and so on till the number of maturity is completed, for these organs 

 are developed in succession. 



Pallas was the first to describe this zoophyte, which, he says, is 

 nearly allied to the Coryne of Gaertner ; and it ought, in his opinion, 

 to be placed, along with the Coryne, in the genus Tubularia. 

 "Etiam haec Tubulariis adnumerari debent Zoophyta, quamvis ne 

 quidem ramescent ut Coryne, et tubulo corneo plane destituta sint. 

 Suadet hoc analoga capitulorum structura in Tubularia, quam 

 rameam vocavi (Elench. Zooph. No. 40), et ibi jam polypis racemi- 

 formibus in siccato specimine instructam apparuisse monui. Accepi 

 eandem postea recentem et polypes ejus seu capitula intra tubum, 

 angusto collo adtenuatum, retrain non posse, eodemque modo ac 

 Coryne et aflfines alii Zoophytum, circa basin ova creberrima proferre. 

 Unde extendendum esse Tubularium characterem genericum, olim 

 exhibitum, apparet." Forskal next gave a good description and 

 figure of the animal, which he considered to be a marine Hydra ; 

 and, about the same time, it was characterized as a species of the 



