244 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
In a communication to Dr. Johnston, from Mr. R. Patterson of 
Belfast, commenting.on Miiller’s figtire of Virguaria, he tells us that 
in the longest specimen he had, no two plumes were precisely alike ; 
So unlike, indeed, that the artist copying one, could not for.a moment 
hesitate—after raising her eyes from her paper to look at the animal— 
as to which she was copying. 
Its short waving and deeply dentated lobes are of a brilliant 
yellow. The polyps, which appear upon the lobes, are whitish, 
transparent, and form a fringe of small diaphanous white stars 
(Figs. 98 and 99). 
‘ V. mirabilis is undoubtedly one of the finest polypidoms found in 
the ocean. Two series of half-moon shaped wings, obliquely hori- 
zontal, are placed symmetrically round an upright axis. They 
embrace the stem somewhat in the manner termed Jefiolate by 
botanists, clasping it alternately; or, shall we say, like two broad 
ribbons rolled round a stem in an inverse direction, in such a manner 
as to produce the effect of two opposing flights of stairs. These 
wings are waving, vandyked, and fringed on their outer edge, and of 
a brilliant yellow ; the toothing of the fringe being the lodging-place 
of the pretty little polyps, which display occasionally their gaping 
mouths and expanded tentacles. The polyps are white and semi- 
transparent. When they display their rays, the margin of each wing 
presents an edging of silvery stars. We may figure to ourselves a 
slender wand-like and much-elongated polypidom, carrying only a 
non-contractile polyp on one side, which would give us an idea of 
the genus Pavonaria, of which we know only one species, which is 
from the Mediterranean. 
The Umbellularia grenlandica has a very long stem (Fig. 100) 
which is terminated at the summit only by a cluster of polyps. It 
has been found in the Greenland and other northern seas. 
_ The Veretillum cynomorium which inhabits the Mediterranean 
(Fig. ror), has a simple cylindrical body, without branchie, and a 
rudimentary polypidom, furnished with very large polyps of a 
whitish colour. 
IV.—THE ALCYONIDZ. 
The animals which compose this group have the fleshy polypidom 
always adherent, without axis or solid interior stem. They are 
divided into four families or tribes. One of these, the Cornularide 
are polyps either living in isolation, or gathered together in small 
numbers on the surface of,a common membraniform expansion. The 
Cornularia cornucopia is found on the coast of Naples, C. crassa,on 
Sod 
