78 THE PETALS. 



and yet sufficiently so to reveal with perfect distinct- 

 ness the few and simple organs contained in the 

 interior. Its base is commensurate with the margin 

 of the cell from which it springs ; but it tapers up- 

 ward to the length of nearly half-an-inch, where it 

 dilates into a flower of eight slender and pointed 

 petals, which diverge in a trumpet-form. Each 

 slightly bulges outward at its junction with the tube, 

 so as to give a slightly campanulate outline to the 

 flower ; indeed the resemblance to the blossom of a 

 Campanula is sufficiently striking. Examined with 

 a lens each petal is perceived to be furnished, on 

 each of its two lateral margins, with a row of deli- 

 cately slender pinnae or filaments, which are short at 

 each extremity, but increase in length, in regular gra- 

 dation, towards the middle of the petal. These 

 pinnse do not proceed in the same plane, but arch 

 outwards, so as greatly to increase the elegance of 

 the flower. Submitted to a higher power, the pinnae 

 are seen to be roughened, throughout their whole 

 length, with numerous prickly rings, somewhat like 

 the horns of an antelope. The whole appearance is 

 very different from the broad petals, notched along 

 each edge, which are commonly represented. * (See 

 Plate III. fig. 1.) 



* Ellis observed long ago that "each tentaculura or claw had on 

 both sides rows of minute short fibres, like the down on some pappous 

 seeds of vegetables." (Corall. p. 84.) And this appearance he has 

 expressed in the plates of his " Corallines" and of his " Zoophytes." 

 But these figures, notwithstanding Dr. Flemmg's verdict on their 

 accuracy, do not represent very precisely what presents itself to my 

 eyes. Sir John Dalyell says, " Each side of the tentaculum is bordered 

 by cylindrical fleshy prongs, whence the pectinate aspect." (Rare 

 Anim. of Sc. ii. 178.) 



