178 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Aug. 1, 1865. 



ous flowering shrub in miniature, rising with a dark 

 brown stem and diverging into numerous bonghs, 

 branches, and twigs, terminating in so many liydrce, 

 wherein red and yellow intermixed afford a fine 

 contrast to the whole (fig. 2). The glowing colours 

 of the one, and the venerable aspect of the other, 

 their intricate parts— often laden with prolific fruit, 

 and their numberless tenants— all highly picturesque, 

 are equally calculated to attract our admiration to 

 the creative power displayed throughout the uni- 

 verse, and to sanction the character of this product 

 as one of uncommon interest and beauty. A very 

 fine specimen was recovered from rocks in a cavity 

 in the bottom of the Prith of Torth, at about 150 

 feet from the surface. It was not, however, a tree, 

 or shrub, or anything else, save in miniature, being, 

 though recovered entire, only 7i inches in height. 



Fig. 3. S'.clde Cfiralliiie. 



Most interesting of all are the Protean changes of 

 tlie Sertiilarice. A luxuriant specimen will at one 

 moment resemble the richest of our floral produc- 

 tions in the flush of summer, and anon appear shorn 

 of its flowers and foliage as in the winter season. 

 The whole seems nov/ still and lifeless, hastening to 

 decay ; but, left alone, it may in a few moments be 

 found covered with innumerable animated blossoms 

 issuing forth from their concealment to the light, 

 which, after seeking their enjoyment in the fulness 

 of display, again vanish in an instant into their re- 

 treats. The truth is, that a multitude of cells, 

 some little more than a simple orifice, some shaped 

 like a tooth, a cup, a flask, or a bell, with smooth or 

 serrated lip, as the case may be, are placed on the 

 stems, boughs, and branches of these Sertularia to 

 afford retreats for its liydrce ; and the specimen 

 possessed of a hundred or a thousand different 

 hydroi is also possessed of a hundred or a thousand 

 different receptacles to shelter them. 



The Sickle Coualline {Fhmul aria falcatci) is 

 a very common but elegant species, six inches or 

 more in length, with slender branches, and twisting 



about itself in a spiral manner : along the branches 



are cells which contain the polypes (figs. 3, 4). 

 This elegant feathered coralline adheres to rocks 

 and shells by little wrinkled tubes, and rises from 



'''"^9- 



them into erect stems, which are surrounded from 

 bottom to top with pinnated branches ; the smaller 

 divisions of these have rows of little denticles or 

 teeth, or cells, en the side, and bend inwards, as they 

 become drj', in the form of a sickle. 



The Sea Phi {Sertularia abieUna) occurs ou old 

 empty shells. I see specimens of them at this 

 moment floiuishing on oyster-shells from Dorchester 

 market-place. The sea fir is named abietina from its 

 fancied resemblance to some species of fir (figs. 

 5, 6). It rises from nine to ten inches high, by a 

 slightly waving stem, with branches on each side, so 



H^ 



that the extreme expanse is about three inches, the 

 branches gradually shortened towards the apex. 

 The sides of the whole stem and branches are 

 clothed with cells, which swell in the middle, each 

 enclosing its hydra. These animals are grey or 

 white, protruding a long cylindrical neck and head, 

 with about twenty-four tentacles. 



The Lily Coralline {Sertulcma rosacea) is a 

 parasite on other zoophytes. A pure white, or faint- 



