PA VON ARIA. 203 



Port William, amidst the magnificent scenery of the High- 

 land Isles, they are in some danger of forgetting even the 

 submerged Pavonaria, and the thousand wonders of the 

 mighty deep. It is, however, a wonderful creature. Many 

 of our zoophytes are sufficiently minute, and require micro- 

 scopic aid ere we can be enraptured with their beauty : but 

 this is a giant a Goliath of Gath a marine Saul amidst 

 the pigmean people, a living rod of four feet in length, 

 thickly beset with living buds and blossoms. The Neapo- 

 litan fishermen call it penna del pesce pavone, the pen or 

 feather of the peacock-fish, hence the name Pavonaria. 

 Without going so far as Naples, however, we shall give the 

 following, as part of the description of our Scottish Pavo- 

 naria, by Professor E. Forbes: "The whole rod, when 

 alive, invested with a fleshy skin, is very slimy. Its base 

 or root is cylindrical, of a yellow colour, and terminating 

 somewhat obtusely, and bulbous. The lowest polypes on 

 the rod are very small, and in a single row on each side, 

 but they gradually increase in size, and become more nume- 

 rous, till they form oblique transverse rows of four, five, or 

 six polypes in a row, the outermost being largest. The 

 back of the rod is yellowish, smooth, and free from polypes. 

 The polypiferous part is of a rose-colour. Each polype is 



