118 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



tube, causing it to resemble the windpipe. " In the month 

 of December," Sir J. G. Dalyell states, " a group was reco- 

 vered from the sea, resembling a copious handfull of white, 

 crisp, baked horse-hair, which rose two inches high, and 

 occupied a vessel of four inches diameter. Closer inspec- 

 tion discovered this to be a vast congeries; one of not 

 fewer than 500 snowy tubes, crowned by scarlet animated 

 blossoms of various hues. In the aggregate it may be 

 compared to a beautiful tuft of pinks decorating a flower- 

 garden." It is not often obtained in the west of Scotland. 

 It seems more common in the north of Ireland. Mr. R. 

 Paterson, of Belfast, says, "Having dredged a specimen, 

 and having placed a detached tube of it in a jar of sea-water, 

 this severed one, by its change of place, caught my eye. It 

 was not merely that it was sinking in the jar, but that it 

 was coiling itself up, uncoiling, stretching, twisting, knotting 

 itself in a way that resembled the Gordius aquations;" thus 

 showing that the stem is not only flexible, but, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, is truly and entirely under the control 

 of the zoophyte. 



4. TUBULARIA GRACILIS, /. J5. Harvey. 



Hab. In deep water, parasitical in tufts of Tubitlaria 

 indivisa and Eudendrium rameum. 



