258 ZOOPHYTES. 



stem. The specimens which are found on the 

 beach, after rough weather, are generally much 

 broken, and their whorling branchlets often torn 

 away; so that the zoophyte, in that condition, 

 more nearly resembles the horns or antennae of a 

 lobster than when perfect. 



The branched Antennularia (Antennularia ra- 

 mosa) differs little from the foregoing species, 

 except in the fact of its having branched instead 

 of straight shoots. It is found on old shells and 

 stones, in deep water; and most visitors of the 

 sea-side have seen it lying about the shore. Some 

 writers think the two species should be considered 

 but one. 



As Ellis has observed, the greatest variety of 

 corallines are to be found on what are generally 

 called rock oysters, or upon those beds of oysters 

 for some time disused or neglected. In places 

 like these, they sometimes cluster in such quan- 

 tities as to look like little fairy groves. If we can 

 procure them immediately after being dredged 

 up, and, taking them carefully from the oysters, 

 place them in dishes full of sea-water, they will 

 soon recover from their temporary alarm, and we 

 shall shortly see the polypes expanding their ten- 

 tacula fearlessly, like living flowers. Observations 

 are best made in summer, as in winter the ani- 

 mals become torpid and contracted. 



It would not be often that a dredge of oysters 

 would come up, during the summer season, without 

 having, on some of the shells, that pretty and 

 common species, the Herring-bone coralline (Ha- 

 lecium halecinum) which grows on stones and 

 shells, in the deep parts of the sea. The young 

 zoophyte is of a deep yellow hue; but it soon 



