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INTELLIGENCE. 



ZOOLOGICAL INFORMATION. 



Alcyonella Stagnorum- ( Abstracted from Mr Teale's Paper.) — From the begin- 

 ning of August to the middle of November in 1835, the Alcyonella was found in 

 great abundance in a small pond, excavated from a bed of ferruginous clay, in a 

 garden near Leeds, having never before been observed in this locality or in this 

 district. The Polypiferous masses are round, sublobulated and botryoidal, incrust- 

 ing stones, leaves, twigs, earthen-ware, and garden utensils, which have been acci- 

 dentally deposited in the pond. The size varying from a thin incrustation to mas- 

 ses of several inches in circumference, one specimen weighing 17 ounces, and 

 being 14^ inches in circumference; the surface presenting numerous subpen- 

 tagonal apertures, closed by a translucent polypiferous papilla ; the vertical 

 section of the mass exhibiting numerous tubes, radiating from a central nucleus, 

 and in their course giving off lateral branches, which being placed in apposition to 

 the original tubes increase the size of the mass as the tubes proceed from the centre. 



The Papilla and Polype Each tube is closed by a conical papilla, from which 



is protruded an expansion of near fifty linear, slightly recurved tentacula, form- 

 ing an unbroken series or circle, depressed at one side into a horse-shoe form ; 

 in the bottom of this horse-shoe crater, within the circle of tentacula, is situated 

 a mouth, towards which animalcules and other particles of matter are seen, with 

 the microscope, to be rapidly driven by the currents, excited along the surfaces 



of the protruded tentacula. Digestive apparatus The mouth communicates 



below with a short oesophagus, soon expanding into a tubular stomach, which 

 after a short course is abruptly turned upwards, and diminishing in size forms a 

 straight intestine, which terminates externally to the crater formed by the tenta- 

 cula. Ovaries and Ova.— Attached to the papilla is a tubular membrane occupying 

 the whole length of the canals of the polypiferous mass. These tubes or ovaries 

 contain numerous ova of an oval form, being of a dark brown colour, having a 

 horny investment, the immature ova being white, translucent, and of small size. 

 The ovary at its junction with the papilla is closed, the ova escaping after the 

 death of the animal, by decomposition of their containing membrane. 



The Alcyonella, I believe, is an animal but little known in this kingdom, and, 

 as far as I have been able to ascertain, has not been recorded as a British animal, 

 unless the opinion of Raspail be correct, that Cristatella and Plumatella are 

 identical with it, but in different stages of developement, or developed under 

 different circumstances. 



The animal was first observed by M. Rose in the pond of Bagnolet near Pa- 

 ris, and was sent by him to Bruguiere for description in the Encyclopedic Me- 

 thodique. He describes the polype as composed of from 15 to 20 filiform ten- 

 tacula, each terminated by a rounded head, arranged in an incomplete circle in a 

 single series. His plate accords with this description. Lamarck, after havkg 

 examined living specimens, approved of and preserved the characters assigned to 

 it by Bruguiere ; and Lamouroux, after examining the living animal, considered the 



NO. III. U 



