CORYNID^E : CORYNE. 37 



mata of Miiller. In the first edition of this work I followed 

 the same course, influenced by a remark of Milne-Edwards, 

 that the latter species was the type of the older genus ; but 

 I have since learned that to continue this nomenclature 

 would be to perpetuate a grievous error. Gaertner was the 

 author of the genus Coryne, but since he did not know the 

 Hydra squamata of Miiller, he could not have that polype 

 in view when he established his genus. His description has 

 reference solely to the animal before us, to which he assigned 

 the name Coryne, and from which it ought not to have been 

 severed; and, notwithstanding the confusion in terms that 

 may be the result, I feel it to be a bare act of justice to the 

 memory of Gsertner to return to his own nomenclature. The 

 genus then as now adopted by us is exactly synonymous with 

 the Stipula of Sars, the Syncoryna of Ehrenberg, and the 

 Hermia of the first edition of this book. 



Gsertner placed Coryne in the family Tubulariae, but from 

 these its real kindred, it was divorced by Cuvier and Lamarck, 

 who knew the species only at second-hand. According to Van 

 Beneden, it was Blainville who first of all recent naturalists 

 restored it to its place ; and, perhaps, it was ; yet the Rev. 

 Dr. Fleming had previously used words which led to that 

 restoration. " We are inclined to consider," says this emi- 

 nent naturalist, " the Coryne as one of the Tubulariadse, 

 having a reduced sheath, and agreeing in the tentacular 

 origin of the ovaria." A more correct view cannot be taken : 

 the Coryne is a reduced Tubularia, a composite and branched 

 polype with its associating medulla contained in a horny tube 

 wrinkled at intervals, as the Tubularia is. 



The stomach and body of the polype is confined to the 

 dilated portion or head of the branches : it is more opake and 

 solid than the medulla in the stalk, and distinctly separated 

 from it behind. Apparently the horny sheath or skin en- 

 closes it entirely, but at intervals the paler apex opens wide 

 for the admission of the food. 



The tentacula are comparatively very short. They consist 

 of a stout stalk and a globular head ; which form, says Van 

 Beneden, is merely the result of contraction, for there is no 

 globosity there in the active and vigorous polypes. The 

 stalk is solid and colourless, with a dusky streak in the 



