480 ME. C. W. PEACH ON BEITTSH POLTZOA. 



any thing, at tlie lowest end ; in this case thej were armed with 

 stout hooked spines where they were buried in the sponge, the 

 points of the hooks bent towards the zoophyte, like the flukes of 

 an anchor pointing towards the bow of a ship when the cable 

 is stretched tight. These hooked spines are shaped like the thorn 

 of a rose-tree, and surround the " root-fibres " in a rather irregu- 

 lar manner, and when dragged out of the sponge they hold in 

 their grasp numbers of the sponge-spicules; this at once explained 

 why these " root-fibres " were armed with hooks, and the points 

 bent towards the zoophyte (see PI. XXIII. fig, 1). 



In March of the present year (1877) I got another specimen from 

 the same locality, and found that the spines &c. were constant under 

 similar circumstances. Feeling much interested in the discovery I 

 resolved to follow it up, and fortunately turned up from my hoards 

 a specimen of Cauda reptans, collected in Cornwall before 1849 ; 

 it is also attached to a sponge. On examination it shows similar 

 Jioolced spines on the " tubular root-fibres " (fig. 2). In the hope of 

 confirming this with a Scotch specimen I got Cauda reptans from 

 Newhaveu, unfortunately not on a sponge, but on Flustra foliacea : 

 here the hooks are absent; but the tips of the "root-fibres" 

 are furnished with short radiating processes spread out at right 

 angles, and from these, short disk-like processes are inserted into 

 the openings and body of the cells of the Flustra, thus giving 

 a firm grip on this larger fan-shaped and firmer support, and 

 enabling the zoophyte to ride safely in a storm (see fig. 3). 



Here, then, we have curious insl;ances of things low (but are 

 they low ? of course I hope that you will take this by comparison 

 only) in the scale so well adapting themselves to changed cir- 

 cumstances as to secure their safety and preservation. In no 

 work on British Zoophytes can I find any notice of these hooks. 

 Prof. Busk has figured, in the ' British Museum Catalogue of 

 Marine Polyzoa,' part 1, pi. xxiv., a Serupocellaria Macandrei, 

 from the coast of Spain, and described it at page 24 as having 

 *' Radical tubes hooJced ;" and at page 25 he mentions Serupocellaria 

 ferox, from Bass's Straits, as " hooked like 8. Macandrei:' These 

 instances, however, are not British. I hope to follow out this 

 discovery when the weather becomes settled and warmer. 



Eschara Sl'enei, var. tridens, Busk. — Although I have known 

 this variety for many years, it is only a short time ago that I was 

 aware of Professor Bui^k's paper in the < Magazine of Natural 



