146 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [CHAP, ix 



having singular movable organs (like those of Flustra avicularia, found 

 in the European seas) attached to their cells. The organ, in the 

 greater number of cases, very closely resembles the head of a vulture; 

 but the lower mandible can be opened much wider than in a real bird's 

 beak. The head itself possesses considerable powers of movement, 

 by means of a short neck. In one zoophyte the head itself was fixed, 

 but the lower jaw free ; in another it was replaced by a triangular 

 hood, with a beautifully fitted trap-door, which evidently answered to 

 the lower mandible. In the greater number of species, each cell was 

 provided with one head, but in others each cell had two. 



The young cells at the end of the branches of these corallines contain 

 quite immature polypi, yet the vulture-heads attached to them, thdugh 

 small, are in every respect perfect. When the polypus was removed 

 by a needle from any of the cells, these organs did not appear in the 

 least affected. When one of the vulture-like heads was cut off from a 

 cell, the lower mauaible retained its power of opening and closing. 

 Perhaps the most singular part of their structure is, that when there 

 were more than two rows of cells on a branch, the central cells 

 were furnished with these appendages, of only one-fourth the size of 

 the outside ones. Their movements varied according to the species ; 

 but in some I never saw the least motion ; while others, with the lower 

 mandible generally wide open, oscillated backwards and forwards at the 

 rate of about five seconds each turn ; others moved rapidly and by 

 starts. When touched with a needle, the beak generally seized the 

 point so firmly, that the whole branch might be shaken. 



These bodies have no relation whatever with the production of the 

 eggs or gemmules, as they are formed before the young polypi appear 

 in the cells at the end of the growing branches ; as they move independ- 

 ently of the polypi, and do not appear to be in any way connected 

 with them ; and as they differ in size on the outer and inner rows of 

 cells, I have little doubt, that in their functions, they are related rather 

 to the horny axis of the branches than to the polypi in the cells. The 

 fleshy appendage at the lower extremity of the sea-pen (described at 

 Bahia Blanca) also forms part of the zoophyte, as a whole, in the same 

 manner as the roots of a tree form part of the whole tree, and not of 

 the individual leaf or flower-buds. 



In another elegant little coralline (Crisia ?), each cell was furnished 

 with a long-toothed bristle, which had the power of moving quickly. 

 Each of these bristles and each of the vulture-like heads generally 

 moved quite independently of the others, but sometimes all on both 

 sides of a branch, sometimes only those on one side, moved together 

 coinstantaneously ; sometimes each moved in regular order one after 

 another. In these actions we apparently behold as perfect a transmis- 

 sion of will in the zoophyte, though composed of thousands of distinct 

 polypi, as in any single animal. The case, indeed, is not different from 

 that of the pea-pens, which, when touched, drew themselves into the 

 sand on the coast of Bahia Blanca. I will state one other instance of 

 uniform action, though of a very different nature, in a zoophyte closely 

 allied to Clytia, and therefore very simply organized. Having kept a 



