CELLULARIA AVICULARIA. 183 



GEMMELLARIA LORICULATA. 



This Gemmellaria loriculata is an example of the branched, 

 half-horny, half-calcareous polyzoary ; it is a splendid object 

 with polarized light, if mounted in balsam, the cells pale 

 pink, with a framework of carbonate of lime, giving a fine 

 orange tint. 



We find Gemmellaria abundantly on the south-western 

 coast, or thrown up on the beach, after a gale, in bunches, 

 easily distinguished by the position of the cells back to 

 back in pairs. 



GEMECELARIA, OR NOTOMIA BURSARIA, 



a rare but lovely zoophyte, always to be looked at as opaque, 

 and the singular appendages to its lid observed. The tri- 

 angular cells are in pairs, each capped by an organ resem- 

 bling a tobacco-pipe, or, some say, a bird's head. It is also 

 called the Shepherd's Purse Coralline, from its resemblance 

 to the seed-capsules of that plant. We only find it in very 

 small tufts, parasitic on other zoophytes ; but, minute as it 

 is, the tiny creature has the same highly organized body as 

 the rest of the Polyzoa. 



CELLULARIA AVICULARIA, 



is the true Bird's-head Coralline found on stones in deep 

 water or at very low tides, growing in spiral fan-like tufts 

 about an inch high. This is a calcareous polyzoary : the 

 cells have a spine at each upper angle, and an appendage 

 called the bird's head. With a little management of light 

 you will see the muscular lines by which the neck opens 

 and shuts ; when alive it snaps in all directions, seizes any 

 passing animal, and holds it fast until death. Now, as they 

 have no inward connection with the stomach of the polype, 

 neither give the food to the tentacles, it is doubtless for pro- 

 tection that they are placed over the otherwise defenceless 

 zoophyte a sensitive and ever-ready police to keep the 

 cities of the great deep. Cities they are indeed ; for examine 

 a piece of Plustra 



