128 BAIIIA BLANCA. 



many thousands ; yet we see that they act by one 

 movement : they have also one central axis con- 

 nected with a system of obscure circulation, and 

 the ova are produced in an organ distinct from the 

 separate individuals.* Well may one be allowed 

 to ask, What is an individual 1 It is always inter- 

 esting to discover the foundation of the strange 

 tales of the old voyagers ; and I have no doubt but 

 that the habits of this Virgularia explain one such 

 case. Captain Lancaster, in his voyaget in 1601, 

 narrates that on the sea-sands of the Island of Som- 

 brero, in the East Indies, he " found a small twig 

 growing up like a young tree, and on offeiung to 

 pluck it up it shrinks down to the ground, and sinks, 

 unless held very hard. On being plucked up, a 

 great worm is found to be its root, and as the tree 

 groweth in greatness, so doth the worm diminish ; 

 and as soon as the worm is entirely turned into a 

 tree it rooteth in the earth, and so becomes great. 

 This transformation is one of the strangest wonders 

 that I saw in all my travels : for if this tree is 

 plucked up while young, and the leaves and bai'lc 

 stripped oif, it becomes a hard stone when dry, 

 much like white coral : thus is this worm twice 



* The cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the ex- 

 tremity were filled with a yellow pulpy matter, which, examined 

 under a microscope, presented an extraordinary appearance. The 

 mass consisted of rounded, semi-transparent, irregular grains, ag- 

 gregated together into particles of various sizes. All such parti- 

 cles, and the separate grains, possessed the power of rapid move- 

 ment ; generally revolving around different axes, but sometimes 

 progressive. The movement was visible with a very weak power, 

 but even with the highest its cause could not be perceived. It 

 was very different from the circulation of the fluid in the elastic 

 bag, containing the thin extremity of the axis. On other occa- 

 sions, when dissecting small marine animals beneath the micro- 

 scope, I have seen particles of pulpy matter, some of large size, 

 as soon as they were disengaged, commence revolving. I have 

 imagined, I know not with how much truth, that this granulo-pul- 

 py matter was in process of being converted into ova. Certainly 

 in this zoophyte such appeared to be the case. 



t Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. viii., p. 119. 



