356 POLYZOA INFUNDIBULATA. 



three inches high, white, calcareous, fibrous at the base, erect, regu- 

 larly dichotomous ; branches erecto-patent, straight ; joints con- 

 stricted, often blackish and emitting fibrous radicals ; the interven- 

 ing spaces long, cylindrical, frequently swollen near the upper end, 

 covered all round with lozenge-shaped immersed cells, disposed in 

 quincunx, and radiating from the centre. 



In a weak mixture of muriatic acid and water, the calcareous por- 

 tion of the polypidom is entirely removed, without any other altera- 

 tion in its form and structure; and we learn from the experiment 

 that the joints are connected together by capillary corneous tubes, 

 equal in number to the series of cells. These tubes cannot be traced 

 through the immediate spaces, but, from the circumstance of their 

 being hollow, it seems not unreasonable to infer that they may na- 

 turally be filled with an irritable pulp, and be the medium of com- 

 munication between the cells and polypes of the different interspaces. 

 The branches are not tubulous or fistular, as Blainville has properly 

 remarked ; whence the impropriety of the Linnaean trivial name, the 

 retention of which only tends to the perpetuation of error. 



Under this species Pallas has the following interesting observation : 

 "Celerrime hanc Cellulariam crescere, saltern celerius embryone 

 Squali, docuerunt ova Squali Promontorio merid. Africes allata, in 

 quibus plantulas plures semipollicares observavi, quanquam fcetum 

 adhuc immaturum continerent." 



2, S. SINUOSA, cells oblong or spathulate; the aperture semi- 

 lunar, situated in the upper third of each cell. 



PLATE LXVI. FIG. 8. 



Ellis Corall. 47, pi. 23, fig. Z>. Tubularia fistulosa, Esper Tubul. tab. 2, fig. 1-4. 

 Farcimia sinuosa, Hassall in Ann. and Mag. N. Hist. vi. 172, pi. 6, fig. 1, 2. 

 Macgittiway in Ibid. ix. 468. Farcimia spathulosa, Hassall in Ibid. xi. 112. 



Hob. In deep water, or in the coralline region, often intermixed 

 with the preceding species. 



" I have but little hesitation in pronouncing this to be a new 

 species. It differs from the ordinary species in the greater size of 

 the cylinders, in the shape of the cells (too material to be the result 

 of any accidental circumstances), and, above all, in the position of the 

 aperture, which in this is placed in the upper part of each cell, while 

 in F. salicornior it is exactly central. This last I consider to be the 

 most important distinction of all. The number of the cells on each 

 cylinder is also much greater than in the preceding species." A, H 

 Hassall. 



