NUDIBRANCHS. 83 



extracted with a tube than I ohseiTed sprawling on 

 the bottom, the tiny E. exigua. A careful examina- 

 tion of the zoophyte revealed three or four more of 

 E. despecta, adhering by the slender foot to the 

 zigzag stems, so firmly that I could scarcely dislodge 

 them. Near the base of the frond-stalk I detected a 

 specimen of the beautiful Boto coronata, a curious 

 creature, with the dorsal tentacles springing from the 

 midst of trumpet-like sheaths, like a stout pistil out 

 of the midst of a flower, and with large branchiae all 

 budding out with prominent knobs. It is indeed a 

 pretty little creature, studded all over with purple 

 specks upon a pale buflf, pellucid ground. I observe 

 that both this species and Eolis despecta have the 

 power of elongating and contracting the branchial 

 processes at will ; so that these are sometimes fully 

 twice as long as they were the moment before, and as 

 they appear perhaps the moment after. This is a pecu- 

 liarity that I have not seen noticed. One of the E. des- 

 pecta deposited from its side, while in the trough under 

 examination, a minute globule of jelly containing a 

 small quantity of spawn; and as there were visible in the 

 pellucid body several more detached white masses of 

 similar appearance, I conclude that this Mollusk de 

 posits its ova not all at once but in successive portions 

 as matured ; each mass, however, being always en- 

 closed in its own envelope of jelly. Perhaps, indeed, 

 this is the habit of all the nudibranchs ; for the spe- 

 cimens of Boris hilamellata that I have kept have 

 commenced to deposit a second ribbon of spawn a 

 day or so after completing the first. 



Boto coronata^ like the Borides, occasionally 



