192 THE BRANCHING CORYNE. 



of undefined outline, and larger than the rest. 

 The polype-flesh, which is very slender within the 

 tube, enlarges rapidly as it emerges. The club- 

 shaped head of the polype is studded with short 

 tentacles of curious and beautiful structure. They 

 vary much in number on each polype, but the full 

 complement appears to be from twenty-five to thirty ; 

 they are arranged in somewhat of a whorled manner, 

 in four or five whorls, which are, however, (especially 

 the lower ones) often irregular and scarcely distinct. 

 Four tentacles usually constitute the final whorl; 

 about six the next, the others respectively contain 

 seven or eight, and ten or twelve. The tentacles 

 spring from the axis with a graceful curve, they are 

 rather thick and short, when contracted, but slender 

 when elongated, nearly equal in diameter, except at 

 the termination, where each is furnished with a glo- 

 bose head. This head (See Figs. 3 and 4) is studded 

 with minute tubercles on every part, which reflect the 

 light, and which viewed by transmitted light are seen 

 to be the terminations of numerous oval cells or folli- 

 cles set in a divergent manner around the centre. 

 Each tubercle is tipped with a minute bristle. The 

 neck or body of the tentacle is perfectly transparent, 

 pellucid, whitish or nearly colourless, and appears to 

 be a tube with thin walls slightly hairy on the surface, 

 but containing a colourless thickish axis, freely per- 

 meating its centre, marked with delicate parallel 

 rings. The globose knobs at the tips of the tenta- 

 cles remind me of the unexpanded blossoms of an 

 Acacia : they are generally tinged with pale red, 

 and in some polypes, especially terminal ones, they 



