LTJCERNAEIDiE. 223 



in height, of a bell-shape, terminating in a sucker resembling the stand 

 of a stalked drinking-glass. The upper part is indented by eight short 

 processes or arms, stretching upward, and terminated by a delicate tuft 

 of a blossom-like appearance ; these, about sixty in number, are glands 

 or suckers, by which prey is caught. Its colours are various and rich. 

 The interior is hollow like a flower, in the centre of which a square 

 mouth is seen ; from this seems to spread four leaves, which add to the 

 beauty of the appearance. 



Dr. Johnston mentions in the British family of Lucemaria, L. fasci- 

 cidaris and L. atmcula; they differ but little from L. ca/nvpanulata. 

 They propagate by ova, which are seen as two rows of spots in the arms 

 that extend around the mouth. 



Nearly allied to the family Actinise, are those laminated, circular- 

 form corals, called Fungiw, or Sea-Mushrooms (Plate V. No. 1). 

 They are found in great variety ; are white, of a flattened round 

 shape, made up ,of thin plates or scales, around which is a translucent 

 jelly-like substance, and amidst it a large polyp ; for, unlike others, 

 they exist as individuals : the lower part is of a stony nature, by 

 which the animal is affixed to the rock whereon it lives. 



In Ellis's Zoophytes is the following passage, quoted from Eum- 

 phius in regard to the Fungia agariciformis : " The more elevated folds 

 or plaits have borders like the denticulated edge of needlework-lace. 

 These are covered with innumerable oblong vesicles, formed of a gela- 

 tinous substance, which appear aUve under water, and may be observed 

 to move Uke an insect. I have observed these radiating folds of the 

 animal, which secrete the lameUse, and which shrink between them 

 when the animal contracts itself on being disturbed. They are con- 

 stantly moving in tremulous undulations ; but the vesicles appeared 

 to me to be air-vessels placed along the edges of the folds, and the 

 vesicles disappeared when the animal was touched." 



In the British Museum there is a splendid specimen of the Brain- 

 stone Coral, or Meandrina cerebriformis, so named by the appearance 

 of its surface resembling the convolutions of the medullary substance of 

 the human brain. In a living state the mass is invested with a fleshy 

 substance, variously coloured, and having numerous short, conical 

 polypiform, confluent cells, arranged in rows between the ridges. It 

 attaches itself by a strong stony secretion to rocks ; and as one genera- 

 tion passes away, on the shelly remains another arises; and thus the 

 imperishable charnel-houses are built upon and increased in magni- 

 tude. 



