206 STARFISHES. 



Hydroid polypes, both species of the family Cortjindm. 

 The one is a minute sessile Coryne, I believe unde- 

 scribed ; the other is either Clava multicornis or a 

 Hydractmia, for though two specimens occur of it 

 (as well as of the former) I cannot, from their youth, 

 determine to which genus it is to be referred.* 



When I first looked over the fragment with a lens, 

 I was sure that I saw Eucratea chelata, with active 

 polypes; but as I cannot by close searching again find 

 it, it is possible I was mistaken. 



But even at this moment I discover something new ; 

 for two little Balani have just opened their valve-Kke 

 shells from amidst the yellow sponge, and are now 

 throwing out their curled fans of most exquisitely 

 fringed fingers, with precise regularity. 



The minute Crustacea that hide and play among 

 the tangled stems of the zoophytes I will not mention, 

 because their presence there may be considered as only 

 accidental. But I cannot reckon as transient visitors 

 a brood of infant Brittle-stars which I find creeping 

 about the bases of the Cellularia^ because I perceive 

 that they have quite made the spot their home, and 

 though they have been now several days in a vessel 

 of water, free to leave their tiny fragment and visit 

 others, or to roam over the expansive bottom of the 

 the glass, if they will, they have no such desire ; but 



* Its head is rose-coloured, and this agrees with Clava, but the 

 tentacles are covered with whorls of pointed tubercles, which Dr. 

 Johnston states is not the case in that genus. On the other hand I 

 cannot trace any echinated crust from which the polype springs, which 

 is characteristic of Hydractinia. There are about nine tentacles, which 

 appear to me to be set nearly in the same plane. No appearance of 

 oyarian capsules is to be traced. It is probably a young Clava. 



