THE CLAVIFORM POLYPES. 27 



Professor Ehrenberg was the first to view these bodies, 

 as distinct individuals and even as of distinct sexes. He 

 considered the ckib-shaped polype-head to be the male, 

 and the bell-shaped bodies, sessile or dependent at its 

 base, as females. This representation has since been ge- 

 nerally followed. I propose to alter it a little. 



In April and May (1840) in Iceland, I frequently 

 observed on empty shells of Balani and other hard sub- 

 stances taken from the bottom of the sea, coryniform 

 animals (fig. 41) fully half an inch long, and consisting 

 of a slender, membranous stem, which supported a rather 

 slender polype head furnished with a few (5 or 6) ten- 

 tacula. From the base of this head, four bell-shaped 

 quadrangular bodies hung down ; which being placed at 

 right angles to each other formed a cross, and together 

 with the erect central head, the whole bore a consider- 

 able external resemblance to a Fritillaria, and I entered 

 it consequently in my note-book, under the name of 

 Coryne fritillaria. These bell-shaped bodies, which I 

 do not hesitate to consider with Ehrenberg as individual 

 animals and not as organs, strikingly resembled the figures 

 which Sars has given of those in Corymorpha nutans and 

 Loven in Syncoryne Sarsii. They were four-sided and 

 the angles moderately acute. The lower edge of the bell 

 was cut off obliquely, so that one edge was longer and 

 descended lower than the other or opposite and shortest 

 one. The longer edge was slightly enlarged at its inferior 

 angle and furnished with a darkish-coloured knob-like 

 organ, the real nature of which we shall very shortly see. 

 At each of the four angles of the bell-shaped body, there 

 was situate near the edge a triangular reddish coloured 

 spot, which, agreeably to common usage, must probably be 

 considered subservient to vision. Around the mouth of 

 the bell was a rather wide annular membrane by which 

 it was partly closed. 



From the bottom or arch of the concave body a four- 

 sided free stomach, ciliated at the end, hung down. The 

 bell-shaped body depended under the base of the polype 



