244 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



In a communication to Dr. Johnston, from Mr. R. Patterson of 

 Belfast, commenting on Miiller's figure of Virgi/laria, he tells us that 

 in the longest specimen he had, no two plumes were precisely alike ; 

 so unlike, indeed, that the artist copying one, could not for a moment 

 hesitate — after raising her eyes from her paper to look at the animal — 

 as to which she was copying. 



Its short waving and deeply dentated lobes are of a brilliant 

 yellow. The polyps, w'hich appear upon the lobes, are whitish, 

 transparent, and form a fringe of small diaphanous white stars 

 (Figs. 98 and 99). 



V. mirabilis is undoubtedly one of the finest poh^^idoms found in 

 the ocean. Two series of half-moon shaped wings, obliquely hori- 

 zontal, are placed sjinmetrically round an upright axis. They 

 embrace the stem somewhat in the manner termed petiolate by 

 botanists, clasping it alternately; or, shall w'e say, like two broad 

 ribbons rolled round a stem in an inverse direction, in such a manner 

 as to produce the effect of two opposing flights of stairs. These 

 Avings are waving, vandyked, and fringed on their outer edge, and of 

 a brilliant yellow ; the toothing of the fringe being the lodging-place 

 of the pretty little polyps, which display occasionally their gaping 

 mouths and expanded tentacles. The polyps are white and semi- 

 transparent. "WQien they display their rays, the margin of each wing 

 presents an edging of silvery stars. We may figure to ourselves a 

 slender wand-like and much-elongated polypidom, canning only a 

 non-contractile pohqD on one side, which would give us an idea of 

 the genus Pavonaria, of which we know only one species, which is 

 from the Mediterranean. 



The UmbcUularia gre7ila7idica has a very long stem (Fig. 100) 

 which is terminated at the summit only by a cluster of polyps. It 

 has been found in the Greenland and other northern seas. 



The Veretillum cynomoriion which inhabits the Mediterranean 

 (Fig. loi), has a simple cylindrical body, without branchiae, and a 

 rudimentary polypidom, furnished with very large polyps of a 

 whitish colour. 



IV.— THE ALCYONID.^. 



The animals which compose this group have the fleshy polypidom 

 always adherent, without axis or solid interior stem. They are 

 divided into four families or tribes. One of these, the Cornu/aridce 

 are polyps either living in isolation, or gathered together in small 

 numbers on the surface of a common membraniform expansion. The 

 Cornuiaria cornucopia is found on the coast of Naples, C. crassa on 



