58 



TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



sparkles over the polype-bear- 

 ing part of the colony (corre- 

 sponding, no doubt, to the 

 individual polypes), but the 

 long, bare lower part of the 

 stem, 9 in. to a foot in length, 

 when gently stroked in the dark 

 glows with a continuous sheet 

 of light of (it seems to me) a 

 pale green colour which nickers 

 or pulsates like a lambent flame. 

 The light on this bare part of 

 the colony is certainly more 

 intense than that of the polypes, 

 and is the most brilliant ' phos- 

 phorescence ' I have seen in 

 any marine animal. I have not 

 seen Pyrosoma alive, but I 

 imagine from the descriptions 

 it may be even more brilliant 

 than Funiculina. 



" In Pennatula, on the 

 other hand, the light appears 

 to be restricted to the polypes. 

 I have not been able to excite 

 any luminosity in the stem 

 portion of the colony, but the 

 illumination of the polypes is 

 very general and beautiful — 

 more general and more lasting 

 than the sparkles that the 

 polypes give in Funiculina. 



Fig. 16.— 

 Funiculina quadrangular is 

 [From a photograph. 



