Zoophytes. \ 3 



four to five inches being the average height. In colour when fresh it 

 resembles a dark chestnut brown. The trunk is thick and coarse, com- 

 posed of many agglutinated tubes. The principal branches are com- 

 pound below, but running out to a single tube towards the extremity. 

 It is very much ramified. The polypes are vase-shaped, of a reddish 

 colour, and bear 24 tentacles. 



Sir John Dalyell writes of this as follows : " This is a splendid 

 animal production one of the most singular, beautiful, and interesting 

 among the boundless works of nature. Sometimes it resembles an aged 

 tree, blighted amidst the war of the elements, or withered by the deep 

 corrosions of time ; sometimes it resembles a vigorous flowering shrub in 

 miniature, rising with a dark brown stem, and diverging with numerous 

 boughs, branches or twigs, terminating in so many hydrae, wherein red 

 and yellow intermixed afford a fine contrast to the whole." 



I think his enthusiasm is perfectly justifiable, for it is one of the 

 prettiest sights I know to see one of these shrubs in the full glory of 

 robust health. 



It is widely scattered over the North Sea, and I would urge those 

 of you who have never examined one to search diligently for it. It will 

 well repay you. It is found in deep water (30 fathoms or so). I have 

 never got it in tidal waters. Like Thuiaria it is quite careless whether 

 it attaches itself to a shell or a stone. 



Following Eudendrium we may take Tubularia Indivisa. The 

 polypes are somewhat similar to those of Eudendrium, but it has no 

 branches. The tubes in which it lives are almost transparent and the 

 little red head of the polype can easily be seen with the naked eye. 



Tubularia Indivisa presents some new features. It has no branches 

 but large clusters may be got. Unlike the preceding types it carries a 

 double row of tentacles, the outer and lower being much the larger. The 

 reproductive organs have their origin between the two sets of tentacles, 

 and extend beyond the lower row. These organs consist of a thin 

 thready line, on which are grouped in pairs the capsules containing the 

 medusoids. 



Now we have finished some of our types of the stalked hydroids, 

 and descending now from our first specimen obelia geniculata we may take 

 hydractinia echinata. What a horrible length of name for a thing the 

 size of a pin head ! Really I think somebody should start and recast all 

 these names for us. I am sorry to have to use these names, but as I 

 know of no others I am unable to simplify them. 



