202 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [cHAP. IX, 
forwards at the rate of about five seconds each turn; others 
moved rapidly and by starts. When touched with a needle, the 
beak generally seized the point so firmly, that the whole branch 
might be shaken. 
These bodies have no relation whatever with the production of 
the eggs or gemmules, as they are formed before the young polyp! 
appear in the cells at the end of the growing branches; as they 
emove independently of the polypi, and do not appear to be in any 
way connected with them; and as they differ in size on the outer 
and inner rows of cells, I have little doubt, that in their functions, 
they are related rather to the horny axis of the branches than to the 
polypi in thecells. The fleshy appendageat the lower extremity 
of the sea-pen (described at Bahia Blanca) also forms part of the 
zoophyte, as a whole, in the same manner as the roots of a tree 
form part of the whole tree, and not of the individual leaf or 
flower-buds. 
In another elegant little coralline (Crisia?), each cell was fur- 
nished with a long-toothed bristle, which had the power of moving 
quickly. Each of these bristles and each of the vulture-like 
heads generally moved quite independently of the others, but 
sometimes all on both sides of a branch, sometimes only those on 
one side, moved together coinstantaneously; sometimes each 
moved in regular order one after another. In these actions we 
apparently behold as perfect a transmission of will in the zoo- 
phyte, though composed of thousands of distinct polypi, as in 
any single animal. The case, indeed, is not different from that 
‘of the sea-pens, which, when touched, drew themselves into the 
sand on the coast of Bahia Blanca. I will state one other in- 
stance of uniform action, though of a very different nature, in a 
zoophyte closely allied to Clytia, and therefore very simply or- 
ganized. Having kept a large tuft of it in a basin of salt-water, 
when ‘it was dark I found that as often as I rubbed any part of a 
branch, the whole became strongly phosphorescent with a green 
light: I do not think I ever saw any object more beautifully so. 
But the remarkable circumstance was, that the flashes of light 
always proceeded up the branches, from the base towards the 
extremities. 
The examination of these compound animals was always very 
interesting to me. What can be more remarkable than to see a 
. 
