126 THE MADREPORE 



I have offered a conjecture that the projection of 

 the thread is an evolution of its interior, and I believe 

 that it is a complete one through its whole length. I 

 have, even since I wrote that conjecture, seen an 

 example of the process, which I can scarcely describe 

 intelligibly by words, but the witnessing of which 

 left on my own mind scarcely a doubt of the fact. It 

 was effected not with the flash-like rapidity common 

 to the propulsion, but sufficiently slowly to be 

 watched, and hy jits or jerks, as if hindered by the 

 tip of the lengthening thread being in contact with 

 the glass. In consequence, probably, of this impedi- 

 ment, it took a serpentine, not a straight form, and 

 eacJi hend of the course was made and stereo- 

 typed (so to speak) in succession, while the tip went 

 on lengthening ; and the appearance of this lengthen- 

 ing tip was exactly like that of a glove-finger turning 

 itself inside out. 



The brush of hairs, I think, is originally inclosed 

 in the lozenge at the large end of the capsule. Both 

 the lozenge and tlie brush are wanting in the small 

 filiferous capsules ; when I observed them in the large 

 ones, the suggestion occurred that I might have over- 

 looked them in the smaller, on which I examined some 

 afresh with the utmost care, but in each case, the thread, 

 which at first occupied the whole cavity of the capsule 

 without any lozenge, was simple when evolved. 



The capsules appear confined to the thickened edge 

 of the frilled band, in which they are set side by side, 

 pointing outwards. 



At the great recess of the tides in October I ob- 

 served that the rocks and caves all about Ilfracombe 



