TUBULAEIA. 115 



straws, and not so thick. They grow in clusters of thirty 

 or forty pipes together, and certainly a dried specimen has 

 but little beauty. How great is its beauty, however, when 

 seen in a live state, like a rich bouquet of splendid flowers ! 



" The yellow fistulous stem," says Sir J. G. Dalyell, 

 " full of mucilaginous pith, is rooted on a solid substance 

 below, and crowned by a living head resembling a fine 

 scarlet blossom, with a double row of tentacula, and often 

 with pendent clusters like grapes, embellished by various 

 hues, wherein red and yellow predominate. Fifty, or even 

 a hundred and fifty, are at times crowded together; their 

 heads of diverse figures, shades, and dimensions, constitute 

 a brilliant animated group, too rich in nature to be effec- 

 tively portrayed by art." "If the florist," he says else- 

 where, " enjoys the bloom of those resplendent gems, which, 

 void of evident sensation and motion, yet stud the verdant 

 fields, or decorate his gardens, and fill the air with fra- 

 grance, so much the higher should we prize those living 

 tenants of the deep, which testify the action and volition 

 diffused throughout their beautiful and luxuriant flourish." 



When these Tubularia are kept for observation in vessels 

 of sea-water, it generally happens, in a few days, that these 

 beautiful heads drop off. It would be all over with man, 



