Zoophytes. 



I never fail to get these when I want them by merely searching the 

 roots of the big tangles that have been cast up on the beach. Of course 

 they are dead then, but if you are fortunate to get down to the beach a 

 two or three hours before a coming storm, you sometimes get them alive, 

 when slicing off the stalk of the tangle and merely keeping the root in a 

 jar of water, you may be successful in getting them home alive. After a 

 storm, of course, they are dead, for what can stand the pounding on the 

 beach for several hours. Much harder and bigger specimens of flotsam 

 get ground down into mince meat, so how can you expect such a tiny, 

 fragile creature to stand a test you yourself shrink from in fear and 

 trembling? 



Now as we go further into this branch we find that the specimens 

 have come from deeper depths, and the collector has either trawled for 

 them or is indebted for them to some kind fisherman. 



Pluinularia similis is a most delicate, fragile specimen. You will 

 notice the stalks, calycles, hydranths, are all relatively small. The 

 calycles are all upon the top side of the branch, and spaced out fairly 

 well. 



But hydrallmania falcata has the calycles packed closely together 

 in a sort of double row, i.e., they are slightly placed to each side, and 

 where one ends and another begins, on the opposite side is the main part 

 of the calycle of the alternate row. 



In aglaophenia the calycles are of two kinds, the ordinary large 

 fellow, and several small ones at the top and bottom which are 

 generally termed guard cells. A sort of clasp binds the main calycles to 

 the stem, so that it is sessile, and the little guard cells are stalked, but so 

 slightly that their movement is limited. 



Let us next consider shortly Antennularia. There are two kinds 

 got here one having boughs, Ramosa ; the other straight as a palm 

 tree, Antennina. The branching in this case is distinctive. Formerly 

 we have had bilatral symmetry as regards branching, but here it takes 

 the form of circular and not lateral symmetry. The branches are 

 arranged in whorls, like equisetum, of five branches at a time, and are so 

 arranged that the one set fits exactly in between the vacant spaces of 

 the one immediately below it. The Antennularia grow to a consider- 

 able length sometimes a foot long. 



The branches are very delicate and easily broken off when dry. I 

 have often got specimens but never a live one. They live at a consider- 

 able depth (30-40 fathoms), and I fancy I must account for my non-suc- 



