360 POLYZOA INFUNDIBULATA. 



cavity in its interior might communicate. From the circumstance that 

 it is more frequently absent than present, it cannot be an organ of 

 vital importance to the animal ; and it is too intimately blended with 

 the sides of the tentacula, and too constant in its position, to be re- 

 garded as a parasite. Does it indicate a difference of sex ? " Farre. 



This production was first described by Johnson, the editor of " Ge- 

 rarde's Herbal." His description, which is characteristic enough, is 

 as follows : " This is a very succulent and fungous plant, of the 

 thicknesse of one's thumbe ; it is of a dark yellowish colour, and 

 buncheth forth on everie side with many unequal tuberosities or 

 knots ; whereupon Mr. Thomas Hickes, being in our companie, did 

 fitly name it Sea Ragged Staffe." It was afterwards observed on the 

 southern coasts of England by Dale and Doody ; and Ray introduced 

 it into his "Synopsis of British Plants" as a fucus. Ellis at first sus- 

 pected it to be the spawn of some shell-fish, but (whether relying on 

 the authority of Pallas, who had seen the polypes, or upon subsequent 

 original observations, is uncertain) he ultimately came to a correct 

 conclusion, for, in his " History of Zoophytes," he says, " This is found 

 at particular seasons full of minute papillae which send forth polypes." 

 The fact was overlooked; and, on the authority of Ray and Hudson, 

 botanists continued to rank it in the vegetable kingdom, where it re- 

 mained until very recently. Even Lamouroux considered it at first 

 as a sea-weed, but he had the fortune afterwards to detect the polypes, 

 which he describes as having a cylindrical body and twelve tentacula, 

 and the description which Dr. Fleming has given is essentially the 

 same. If no error has crept into their calculation, the species must 

 be distinct from ours, for a very careful examination has satisfied me 

 that the tentacula are sixteen in number. 



D'Orbigny says that the Ulva diapkana of the " Flore Fran^aise" 

 " n'est autre chose qu'un amas de s6ries d'oeufs d'une espece de gas- 

 teropode nu." M6m. du Museum, vi. 181. The description, how- 

 ever, so evidently belongs to the Alcyonidium before us, as to make 

 it almost certain that this remark has originated in some misappre- 

 hension. 



2. A. HIRSUTUM, polypidom variously divided, compressed , 

 the surface covered with minute conical papilla or polype-cells. 

 Fleming. 



PLATE LXIX. FIG. 1, 2. 



Alcyonium gelatinosum, Fabric. Faun. Grcenl. 447. Espe.r Pflanz. Alcyon. tab. 18, 

 fig. 1. A. hirstuum, Flem. Brit. Anim. 517. Johnston in Zool. Journ. iv. 418 : 



