01 



TAB. XXV. 



PENNATULA mirabilis? 

 Slender Sea Pen. 



Class 6. Vermes. Order 4. Zoophyta. 



Gen. Char. Animal not affixed, of various shapes, 

 supported by a bone running through the middle, 

 naked at the base, the upper part generally with 

 lateral ramifications, furnished with rows of tu- 

 bular denticles, producing radiate polypes from 

 each tube. 



Spec. Char. Stem nliform, with lunate, denticulated, 

 alternate ramifications at the top, growing smaller 

 towards the bottom, which is naked. 



Syn. Pennatula mirabilis. Gmel. Syst, Nat. v. 1. 3865. 



1 HE natural construction of these aiumals is curiously 

 imitative of a quill not stripped of its feathers, in most ol" 

 the species ; but the one before us seems to represent a quill 

 stripped of its feathers. The base looks like a pen in this 

 as well as in the other species, swelling a little from the 

 end, and then tapering. The upper part is thicker, with 

 alternate semicircular pectinated swellings, larger towards the 

 middle_, tapering upwards, and terminating in a thin bony 



