158 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



" New buds and bulbs the living fabric shoots, 

 On lengthening branches, and protruding roots. 

 Or on the father's side from bursting glands, 

 Th' adhering young its nascent form expands ; 

 In branching lines the parent trunk adorns, 

 And parts, ere long, like plumage, hairs, or horns." 



DARWIN'S Temple of Nature. 



FAMILY CAMPANULARIAM. 



Character. Polypidoms plant-like, horny, rooted by a creeping 

 tubular fibre, branched or simple ; the polype-cells thin and 

 campanulate, terminal, elevated on a ringed footstalk, disposed 

 either alternately or irregular : ova in horny deciduous capsules. 

 Polypes with a single series of filiform tentacula; the mouth 

 proboscidiform. Embryo medusiform. Dr. Johnston. 



Genus XIII. LAOMEDEA, Lamouroux. 



Gen. CJiar. Polypidom rooted by a creeping fibre, plant-like, 

 erect, jointed at regular intervals, the joints ringed, incrassated, 

 giving origin, alternately from opposite sides, to the shortly pe- 

 dicled cells : cells campanulate : vesicles axillary. Polypes hydra- 

 form. Dr. Johnston. 



1. LAOMEDEA DICHOTOMA, Sea -thread Coralline, Ellis. 

 (Plate X. fig. 30.) 

 Hab. On old shells and other bodies within tide-mark. 



