370 THE MICROSCOPE. 



folds, and the vesicles disappeared when the animal was 

 touched." 



In the British Museum there is a splendid specimen of 

 the Brainstone Coral, or Meandrina cerebriformis, so named 

 by the appearance of its surface resembling the convolu- 

 tions of the medullary substance of the human brain. In 

 a living state the mass is invested with a fleshy substance, 

 variously coloured, and having numerous short, conical 

 polypiform, confluent cells, arranged in rows between the 

 ridges. It attaches itself by a strong stony secretion to 

 rocks ; and as one generation passes away, on the shelly 

 remains another arises ; and thus the imperishable charnel- 

 houses are built upon and increased in magnitude. 



LUCERNARID^E, " Lamp polypes." These beautiful and 

 singular animals may be seen swimming quickly through 

 the waters, or more generally adhering to sea-weed, and 

 spreading out and contracting their bodies as they seize 

 their prey ; for as soon as the little knobbed tentacles have 

 seized an animal, it is carried to the mouth, and the body 

 contracts, and closes up to consume it. They are of a 

 jelly-like appearance, with a smooth and thickish skin ; 

 their bodies are arborescent, with bell-shaped cells, having 

 small suckers at the bottom, and are divided into eight 

 compartments, as we see in other species of the Actinia. 



Lucernaria campanulata. This graceful animal is about 

 an inch in height, of a bell-shape, terminating in a sucker 

 resembling the stand of a stalked drinking-glass. The 

 upper part is indented by eight short processes or arms, 

 stretching upward, and terminated by a delicate tuft of a 

 blossom-like appearance ; these, about sixty in number, 

 are tentacles, by means of which it takes its prey. The 

 interior resembles a flower, in the centre of which is a 

 square mouth ; from this spreads out four leaves, adding 

 much to the beauty of its appearance. Its colours are 

 various and rich. 



Dr. Johnston mentions in the British family of Lucer- 

 naria, L. fascicularis and L. auricula; they differ but little 

 from L. campanulata. They propagate by ova, which are 

 seen as two rows of spots in the arms that extend around 

 the mouth. 



MADREPORID^:. Madrepores, Mother -pores, "tree corals," 



