BOTEYLLI. 311 



ground, or green on an iron-grey. The stars vary in 

 outline, often being angular, often oval, or circular : 

 they vary, too, in dimensions, and in number of the con- 

 stituent specks ; some may be a sixth of an inch in 

 diameter, and contain a dozen or more ; others may be 

 less than half that size, and have no more than two or 

 three; or even a single speck may be seen here and 

 there, which has not yet begun to develop the stariy 

 form. 



Each bright speck in these radiating star-like sys- 

 tems is an animal essentially of the Ascidian form, with 

 the following peculiarities. All have budded from one 

 primary individual, which was produced as a tiny tadpole, 

 from an egg : the manner and direction in which the 

 buds were put forth determining the starry arrangement. 

 There is a common gelatinous envelope, in which the 

 whole are imbedded, and which ever extends as the 

 individuals and systems multiply, and which seems to 

 have the power of developing isolated individuals 

 which have not budded in the ordinary way, but which 

 then produce others by budding, and so become the 

 commencing points of other systems. In each indi- 

 vidual the siphonal orifices are remote from each other, 

 the receiving one being placed on the circumference of 

 the ring or system, while the ejecting one is placed at 

 the opposite end, opening, in common with the dis- 



