272 POLYZOA INFUNDIBULATA. 



polypidom a branched or rather nodulous aspect. The new growths 

 are easily distinguished by their whiter colour. 



This pretty coral, when simple, has a great resemblance to a little 

 sea-egg (Echinus) bleached and deprived of its spines, and which 

 has got accidentally fixed on a short stout pedicle : or, in respect of 

 form, it may be compared to a corn-stalk in miniature. It is a 

 solid coral, without any rays or plaits in the cells, which cover the 

 whole polypidom, and extend even over its expanded basis. The 

 resemblance between it and the Lymnorea mamillosa of Lamouroux 

 (Blainv. Actinol. p. 541, pi. 74, fig. 4.) is very remarkable, but 

 Blainville informs us that the latter is a sponge, so that the resem- 

 blance is merely in outward show. There is a nearer affinity to 

 some species of fossil Calamoporse, as for example to the Calamopora 

 parasitica of Phillips (Illust. Geol. Yorks. part ii, p. 201, pi. 1, fig. 

 61, 62). And Professor Forbes writes me that Goldfuss has figured 

 two Maestricht corals from the upper chalk, under the names of 

 Ceriopora stellata and C. diadema (PI. xi, fig. 11, and 12), which are 

 closely allied to it. Mr. Forbes has an undescribed British chalk 

 species of the same group. 



# % % Polypidom lobed : base unmargined. 



5. T. LOBULATA, " polypidom six-lobed ; cells irregular, 

 unitedr A. H. Hassall.* 



Tubulipora lobulata, Hassall in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. 367, pi. 10, fig. 1, 2. 



Hob. Dublin bay, A. H. Hassall 



" Polypidom divided into six lobes of unequal size ; tubes joined, 

 of irregular form and size. Of the above Tubulipora I have met 

 with but a single specimen ; its appearance and development, how- 

 ever, is so different from any hitherto described, that I conceive 

 myself justified in considering it to be a distinct species." A. H. 

 Hassall. 



Mr. W. Thompson regards this production simply " as a very aged 

 individual of T. serpens, which had lived long enough to ' describe a 

 circle ' with its arms. Specimens are before me with one, two, three 

 and four expansions of a similar nature in all respects to the six of 

 T. lobulata." In corroboration of this opinion Mr. Thompson has 

 sent me a specimen which grows on the inner surface of a Pullastra, 



* The author of " A History of the British Fresh-water Algse," 2 vols. 8vo. 

 Lond. 1845 : and of some Zoological and Botanical essays in the Annals of Natural 

 History. The genus Hassalia of Berkeley is the reward of his services to science. 



