SERTULARIADJ5. 



477 



Serta.- 



Linnoeus made a large genus of them; but Lamarck cun- 

 Fiderablv reduced his classification. There are seventeen 

 }>ritish species, which Dr. Fleming proposes to divide into 

 two groups, with stems simple or compouud. 



The tentacles of Sertularia 

 are abundantly supplied with 

 cilia ; the cells are pitcher- 

 shaped, aiTanged alternately, 

 or in pairs obliquely, not 

 exactly opposite, on the stem 

 and branches of the poly- 

 ])idom, which is horny. La- 

 mouroux classed with this 

 family Thoa; of which there 

 liave been several kinds found 

 iu Great Britain. The name 

 IS supposed to be derived from 

 the Greek word for sharp; 

 but we think, with Dr. John- 

 ston, that it more probably p^g 233.— sickie-C( 

 is a mis-spelling of Thoe, one 

 of the Nereids, nymphs of the sea. They are generally 

 of a brown and yellow colour, branched, and from au inch 

 and a half to six inches in height. 



Sertularia pumila. — This is parasitic, and spreads its 

 brown-coloured shoots over various fuci and sea-shells ; 

 but rarely attains more than half an inch in height. 

 Stewart says : — " This species, and probably many others, 

 in some particular states of the atmosphere, emits a phos- 

 phorescent light in the dark. If a leaf of the fuau 

 serratus, with Sertularia upon it, receives a smart stroke 

 in the dark, the whole is most beautifully illuminated, 

 every denticle seeming to be on fire." 



On the south-eastern coast of England the most common 

 kind found is the Sertularia setacea, or operculata, Seahair- 

 Ooralline : it reaches from six inches and upwards in 

 height, and grows in tufts, like bunches of hair. The 

 stem and branches seem composed of separate pieces, 

 iitting accurately into each other, and terminate in a 

 star-like head, from which radiate the tentacles. Mr. 

 Lister was observing a living specimen, when a littlo 



Corallint'. 

 laria, J'olypidoiu vj. 



