142 THE SNAKE -HEAD. 



grow under the shadow of the overhanging ridges 

 with profuse luxuriance. Among these I found that 

 elegant species, Delesseria hypoglossum. Around its 

 base and twining up the lower part of its frond were 

 two interesting little zoophytes wliich had entwined 

 their slender trailing stems with each other, in irregu- 

 lar tortuous windings, forming a sort of mat. One of 

 these was Anguinaria fipatalata. It consists of a 

 long creeping stem, which embraces the sea-weed, 

 just as a creeping plant does a tree, throwing out, at 

 irregular intervals, the cells, which form the habi- 

 tations of the polypes. These cells are unlike those 

 of any other zoophyte ; each consist of a bent cylin- 

 drical neck of considerable length, swollen at the end 

 into an oblong head, which is open on one side some- 

 what like a spoon, (Plate VIT, fig. 15) ; whence the 

 specific name : the resemblance however of the cell to 

 the head of a snake is much more obvious, and has 

 given rise to the generic appellation, and this likeness 

 is increased by numerous rings that surround the 

 neck throughout its length, somewhat like the cart- 

 lages of the windpipe. The swollen head is marked 

 with minute punctured dots, arranged in lines paral- 

 lel to the rings of the neck, of which they are a con- 

 tinuation; though the distinction between them is 

 abrupt and well marked. A polype of twelve slender 

 tentacles protrudes in a funnel-like form from the 

 end of the cell (Fig. 8), or contracts itself into the 

 neck, along which the tenl^cles then lie close-pressed, 

 as a bundle of parallel fibres. 



June ^4.th. I saw an Anguinaria with the mem- 

 branous sheath of the polype partly extruded, the 



