CORYNID.E : CORYNE. 41 



The proof which Gaertner gives in this passage of the use of the 

 tentacula has reference to the opinion expressed by Pallas, that they 

 were probably respiratory or branchial organs : " Apparatus hicce 

 pinnularum circa caput, non tarn tentaculorum officium prsestare 

 videtur quam branchiarwn ; saltern immobilis earum in vivo 

 animali inutilitas, et analogia branchiarum in plurimis Serpularum 

 speciebus haud dubie ad caput positarum, hoc suadent." Blench. 

 p. 80. Van Beneden has recently embraced this opinion. The 

 tentaculum of the Tubularinse, he says, is not an organ of prehen- 

 sion, and he likes better to consider it as an organ of respiration. 

 Recher. sur les Tubulaires, p. 17. 



Five species of the genus Coryne have been described, but the cha- 

 racters by which it is proposed to distinguish them seem to be of very 

 insufficient validity, producible by age and by peculiarities in their 

 respective sites. As most of the species have already been indi- 

 cated as British, I shall give in this place some account of them 

 all ; and the student will thus be enabled to form his own opinion 

 when he comes to name his specimens. 



1. G. pusilla, " sesquipollicaris, arenacea vel saturate rubra, 

 ramosissima, ramulis paucis, validioribus, tortuosis, apice polypiferis, 

 prole ignota." Ehrenberg. Van Beneden says that the polypidom 

 is transparent, pale yellow, thin, irregular, and flexile, very flexuous, 

 and only a little ringed. Its transparency permits the circulatory 

 movement within the stem to be seen. There are about twelve 

 tentacula, placed in fours in three rows, at an equal distance from 

 each other; but individuals occur with the tentacula in two rows only, 

 and it is sometimes very difficult to recognize any regularity in 

 their disposition. The ovules are simple, and situated at the base 

 of the lower tentacula ; they are proportionally very large, and there 

 are not more than two or three on any one polype. The embryo at 

 birth resembles a miniature Octopus with four tentacles or arms. 

 (This appears to be what we have figured on Plate IV. Fig. 1, 2. If 

 a species, it is evidently not the C. pusilla of Gsertner. ) 



2. C. Listerii, " tige cornee, annelee assez regulierement dans 

 presque toute sa longueur, ramifiee ; tentacules ou nombre de seize 

 environ." Coryne, Lister in Phil. Trans, an. 1834, p. 376, pi. 10, 

 fig. 3. Syncoryna Listerii, Van Beneden Les Tubul. 54, pi. 3, fig. 

 11, 12. This is readily distinguished, says Van Beneden, from the 

 preceding by the polype, which is larger, longer, and furnished with 

 a greater number of tentacula, which are arranged also with less 

 regularity. Yet in some individuals a spiral arrangement is indis- 



