154 SERPULA. CREEPER. 



13. Serpula tubularia. Tubular Creeper. Fig. 84. 



Shell opake, white or with a flesh-color tinge, cylindri- 

 cal, a little tapering and slightly wrinkled transversely ; the 

 larger end detached and elevated above the surface to 

 which it is affixed, sometimes in a quite erect direction, 

 but generally rather obliquely, and often for nearly half its 

 length; the smaller end attached and not spreading at the 

 sides, flexuous or variously twisted; the margin of the 

 aperture mostly reflected, with sometimes a broad and 

 somewhat reflected circular ridge a little below the margin, 

 as if one tube grew out of another, like the Lichen pyxi- 

 datus : length four or five inches j diameter at the larger 

 end a quarter of an inch. 



Variety. With the lower part buried in sponge and ex- 

 actly triangular. 



Groups of this noble Serpula, fancifully disposed in clus- 

 ters of fifty or sixty together, and affixed to large shells, 

 bottles, branches of wood, fragments of rock, and other 

 substances, are dredged up on the Devon coast, and of 

 much smaller size in Dublin bay. The variety is not a 

 fourth part the size, always found in sponge, and uniformly 

 preserves its triangular appearance on the lower part. It 

 may probably be distinct, v. v. 



14. Serpula rugosa. Rough Creeper, 



Shell opake, dull white or with a reddish tinge, very rug-, 

 ged transversely, taper with a strong raised jagged longi-, 

 tudinal ridge ; the larger end erect or a little sloping, and 

 detached from the surface to which it is affixed for about 

 a third part of its length ; the smaller end attached and 

 not spreading at the sides, flexuous and variously twisted : 

 aperture orbicular, with a protruding tooth-like point 

 formed by an elongation of the dorsal ridge ; not half the 

 size of the last. 



We frequently find this species in irregular masses 

 lodged in the soft red sandstone about Teignmouth, and in 

 the forsaken chambers of the Venus perforans. From, 

 S. tubularia it differs in size, in its very rugged surface,, 

 and in the strong raised dorsal ridge : from S. triquetra, 

 in being always detached at the larger end, and in not be- 

 ing spread at the sides where it is attached, v. v. 



15. Serpula, 



