PEXNATULIDJS : VIRGULARIA. 161 



on the same spot, and lie with the same side up or down just as they 

 have been put in. They inflate the body until it becomes to a con- 

 siderable degree transparent, and only streaked with interrupted lines 

 of red ; they distend it more at one place, and contract it at another ; 

 they spread out the pinnae, and the polypes expand their tentacula, 

 but still they never attempt to swim or perform any effort towards 

 locomotion. Our fishermen believe that they are fixed at the bottom 

 with their ends immersed in the mud ; and the paleness of the base, 

 when viewed in connection with the preceding observations, goes far, 

 in my opinion, to prove this statement to be correct. " Si les pennatules 

 nagent aussi," says Blainville, " ce dont je doute un peu, quoiqu'elles 

 rampent tres-lentement, c'est peut-etre en chassant le fluide qui est 

 entre dans leur systdme acquifere, plutot qu'a 1'aide des pinnules 

 polypiferes." Actinolog. p. 83. 



17. VIRGULARIA,* Lamarck. 



CHARACTER. Polype-mass free, linear -elongate, " support- 

 ing, towards the upper extremity, sessile lunate lobes embracing 

 the stem obliquely, and bearing a row of cells on their margin.' 1 ' 1 



1. V. MIRABILIS, "stem filiform, with alternate lobes trans- 

 versely ridged" Mr. Simmons.-f- 



PLATE XXX. 



Pennatula mirabilis, Lin. Syst. 1322. MM. Zool. Dan. i. p. 11, tab. 11, fig. 13. 

 Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 63. Sou-erby Brit. Misc. 51, pi. 25. Jameson in Wern. 

 Mem. i. 565. Virgularia mirabilis, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. ii. 430 : 2de edit. ii. 

 647. Flem. Brit. Anim. 507. Grant in Edin. Journ. of Science, no. 14. 

 Scirpearia mirabilis, Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 470. La Virgulaire a ailes 

 laches, Blainv. Actinol. 514, pi. 90, fig. 3. 



Hob. Dredged up by Mr. Simmons off Inch-Keith, Sowerby. Pres- 

 tonpans Bay, Jameson. " On the east and north coast of Scotland, 

 where it is believed by the fishermen to have one end lodged erect in 

 the mud ; in Zetland it is called the Sea-rush," Fleming. Gairloch, 

 James Smith, Esq., of Jordan-Hill. Near Oban, Mr. Mac Andrew. 

 Dredged up in Belfast Lough, Templeton. " Is most abundant 

 in Belfast Lough, several being sometimes taken in a single haul 

 of the dredge ; but from their brittle nature, it is difficult to get 



* Formed from Virgida, the diminutive of Virgo, a rod. 



t " A young man who has since fallen a sacrifice to his zeal for Natural History 

 in the West Indies." Leach. He was, I believe, a native of Edinburgh. 



M 



