THE FAN TUBULIPORA. 227 



TUBULTPORA FLABELLARIS. 



June 2i. — At Hele, in a dark tide-pool between 

 overhanging rocks, I gathered a frond of 'Nitophyllum 

 laceratuin, on which were several patches of a pretty- 

 zoophyte, evidently identical with the Tuhulijwra 

 filahellaris of Fabricius, which though known to 

 inhabit the shores of Europe from Greenland to the 

 Mediterranean, has been* only lately recognised as a 

 British species by Mr. W. Thompson, who found it on 

 the North coast of Ireland. It consists of a great 

 number of long, slender, cylindrical tubes of pellucid 

 coral or shelly substance, set side by side and over- 

 lapping each other on the frond of the sea-weed, to 

 which they adhere for a portion of their length, and 

 then curve upward so as to be free at their terminal 

 portions. The tubes are somewhat crowded, but 

 diverge from each other, so as to form a resemblance 

 to a curling feather. The margins of the tubes are 

 oblique in some cases, in others quite transverse ; and 

 the edges are slightly expanded. The exterior of the 

 tube is set with many annular ridges, which are 

 evidently the expanded rims of the tube at various 

 periods of its growth ; the new shelly matter being 

 deposited not from the very edge, but from a ring a 

 little way within it, so as to leave the narrow expanded 

 lip projecting as a permanent ridge, in a manner com- 

 mon in many shells. The walls of the tubes are 

 sparsely studded with minute round grains, like those 

 of Crisia ; and similar ones are found far more thickly 

 in the shapeless mass of shelly matter that envelopes 

 the bases of some of the tubes, connecting them like 

 a web. 



