370 POLYZOA INFUNDIBULATA. 



yet expressive. The filaments are capillary, smooth, pellucid, kneed 

 and jointed at their dichotomies, immediately under which the cells 

 are usually placed in a short row containing from four to eight or 

 nine cells, growing gradually shorter outwards, and so arranged as to 

 resemble a Pan's-pipe in miniature, " with cylindrical reeds varying 

 in their length." That the polypes are ascidian is satisfactorily 

 proved by Cavolini; and Lister informs us that they have eight 

 ciliated arms. 



24. VESICULARIA,* J. V. Thompson. 



CHARACTER. Polypidom rooted, confervoid, Jistular, horny, 

 dichotomously branched, jointed at the divisions ; cells ovate, 

 disjunct, uniserial and unilateral. Polypes ascidian with eight 

 tentacula, and a gizzard. 



1. V. SPINOSA. Dillenius. 



PLATE LXXII. Fig. 14. 



Conferva marina cancellata, Rail Syn. i. 59, no. 11. Dill. Hist. Muse. 24,~no. 22, pi. 

 4, fig. 22, fide />. Turner in Lin. Trans, vii. 106. Conferva cancellata, Lin. 

 Syst. ii. 720. With. Bot. Arrang. iv. 131. Silk Coralline, Ettis Corall. 20, no. 17, 

 pi. 11, fig. b, B, c. D. Sertularia spinosa, Lin. Syst. 1312. Ellis and Soland. 

 Zooph. 48. Turt. Gmel. iv. 682. Esper Pflanz. Sert. tab. 28, fig. 1, 2, 3. Jameson 

 in Wern. Mem. i. 564. Bosc Vers. iii. 118. Berk. Syn. i. 219. Stew. Elem. ii. 

 446. Turt. Brit. Faun. 215. Lam. Anira. s. Vert. ii. 120: 2de 6dit. ii. 148. 

 Hogg's Stock. 33. Sertularia sericea, Pall. Blench. 114. Laomedea spinosa, 

 Lamour. Corall. 91. Blainv. Actinolog. 474. Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 

 466. Valkeria spinosa, Flem. Brit. Anim. 551. Couch Zooph. Cornw. 38. Vesi- 

 cularia spinosa, Thomp. Zool. Illust. 98, pi. 3, fig. 1-8. Farre in Phil. Trans, an. 

 1837, 401, pi. 22. Johns. Brit. Zooph. 250, pi. 29, fig. 1-4. Hassall in Ann. and 

 Mag. N. Hist. vi. 170. Van Beneden les Bryozaires, 30, pl.*4, fig. c. Couch 

 Corn. Faun. iii. 94, pi. 17, fig. 1. 



Hob. " On oyster beds," Fleming. Generally distributed along 

 the shores of Great Britain, but most abundant on the south and 

 west coasts. Frequent on the shores of Ireland, and like all our 

 zoophytes, attains a much greater than ordinary size on the Dublin 

 coast, W. Thompson. 



Polypidoms affixed by a fibrous base, very slender, confervoid, of 

 a thin membranous pellucid texture, much branched, erect, some- 

 times as much as a foot in height, usually about four inches: main 

 branches composed of intertwined capillary tubes, tapered, zigzag; 

 branchlets arising from the bends, either solitary or in pairs, short, 



* From vesicula, the diminutive of vesica, a bladder. 



