VESICULARIADJB I VALKERIA. 375 



cable to the zoophyte before us, that I concur with Dr. Fleming in 

 thinking that some error must have been made in the enumeration 

 of them. 



I have hitherto said nothing of the phosphorescence of the Polyzoan 

 zoophytes, yet several of them exhibit the phenomenon as vividly as 

 any of the preceding orders. Valkeria cuscuta, Cellularia reptans, 

 Flustra membranacea, and Membranipora pilosa are specifically men- 

 tioned by the Rev. D. Landsborough ; and, like the similarly gifted 

 Anthozoa, they emit their light only under peculiar circumstances, 

 and under others cannot be made to do so. These circumstances are 

 not correctly ascertained, but the life of the polype and the display of 

 its light are not necessarily concurrent, for in one of Mr. Lands- 

 borough's experiments, when it is certain that all its polypes must 

 have been dead, " Membranipora stellata lighted up just one bright 

 star, and Flustra membranacea shed one faint gleam of light, and re- 

 fused to repeat the fire, however much shaken." Ann. and Mag. N. 

 Hist, viii., 259. The light that proceeds from the Flustra mem- 

 branacea, says Mr. Landsborough, is very beautiful, for as the cells 

 are so closely and regularly arranged, it exhibits, when shaken, a 

 simultaneous blaze, and becomes for a little like a sheet of fire. He 

 continues, "With Flustra pilosa I was very successful. That va- 

 riety of it which is spread on a flat surface, and which, from the form 

 that the polypidom assumes, is the Membranipora stellata of Thomp- 

 son, on being bent or shaken, became doubly entitled to the name of 

 stellated, for every polype in its cell lighted up a very brilliant little 

 star, and for a short time the polypidom became like an illuminated 

 city." 



2. V. UVA, " stem creeping, irregularly branched ; cells scat- 

 tered" Ellis. 



Grape Coralline, Ellis Corall. 27, no. 25, pi. 15, fig. a, C, D. Sertularia uva, Lin. 

 Syst. 1311. Ettis and Soland. Zooph. 53. Berk. Syn. i. 218. Turt.. Gmel. iv. 

 682. Turt. Brit. Faun. 215. Stew. Elem. ii. 445. Jameson in Wern. Mem. i. 

 564. Base Vers. iii. 117. Hogg^s Stock. 34. Clytia uva, Lamour. Corall. 89. 

 Tempkton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 466. Valkeria uva, Flem. Brit. Anim. 551, 

 Couch Zooph. Cornw. 38. Hassall in Ann. and Mag. N. Hist. vi. 170. Couch 

 Corn. Faun. iii. 95, pi. 16, fig. 5. La Campanulaire ovifere, Blainv. Actinolog. 473. 



Hah. " Growing on Fucus's and other corallines, on the British 

 coast," Ellis. Leith shore, Jameson. " Found on Fucus nodosus on 

 the coast at Kirkcubbin, county Down, July 1806," Tempkton. 

 Coasts of Antrim and Down, W. Thompson. " Parasitical on the 

 sea-oak (S. pumila), abundant about October," on the coast of Corn- 



