486 POLYPI. 



in more or less considerable number on a common base, sometimes in the form 

 of a creeping stem, and sometimes having a broad surface. 



LUCERNARIA, Muller. 



The Lucernariae should apparently be approximated to the Actinte, but 

 their substance is softer : they fix themselves to fuci and other marine bodies 

 by a slender pedicle, and their superior portion dilates like a parasol, in the 

 centre of which is the mouth. Numerous tentacula united in bundles 'are 

 arranged round its edges. Between the mouth and these same edges are eight 

 organs resembling ca>ca, proceeding from the stomach and containing a red 

 and granulated substance. 



ORDER II. 

 GELATINOSI. 



THE gelatinous Polypi, unlike the preceding ones, are not invested with a 

 firm envelope, neither is there a ligneous, fleshy, nor corneous axis in the 

 interior of their mass. Their body is gelatinous and more or less conical; its 

 cavity supplies the want of a stomach. 



HYDRA, Linnaeus. 



Of all the animals of this class, these are reduced to the greatest degree of 

 simplicity. A little gelatinous horn, whose edges are provided 

 with filaments that act as tentacula, constitutes their whole 

 apparent organisation. The microscope discovers nothing in 

 their substance but a diaphanous parenchyma filled with 

 more opaque granules. Notwithstanding this, they swim, 

 crawl, and even walk by alternately fixing their two extre- 

 mities in the manner of leeches or of the caterpillars called 

 Geometrse. They agitate their tentacula and use them for 

 seizing their prey, which can be seen being digested in the cavity of their 

 body. They are sensible to the action of light and seek it, but their most 

 wonderful property is that of being constantly reproduced by the indefinite 

 excision of their parts, so that we can multiply them at will by means of 

 division. Their natural increase is by shoots which push out from various 

 points of the body of the adult, and which at first resemble branches. 



CORINE, Gartner. 



The Corines have a fixed stem terminated by an oval body, of a firmer 

 consistence than that of the Hydra', open at the summit, and completely 

 covered with little tentacula. Some of them carry their ova at the inferior 

 part of the body. 



