Observations on British Zoophytes. 



61 



In September last, I found on Inch Garvie the beautiful 

 large Coryne which I place on the table this evening ; one of 

 the polyps being shown at Plate III., fig. 6. 



2. Coryne (niargarica, mihi) implecca (Alder). 



Corallum branched or creeping; composed of two coats, the inner coat 

 horny, annulated at intervals ; the outer coat membranous, smooth, longitu- 

 dinally folded near the polyps. Body of the polyp cylindrical, much elongated ; 

 summit truncated, very transparent, of a pearly white colour ; mouth sur- 

 rounded by a dense white ring. Tentacles small and slender, very numerous. 

 Thread-cells on tentacles oval, barbed ; on the body of polyp, long, cylindrical. 

 Both kinds of thread-cells within the corallum. 



This zoophyte, as to its polypary, bears a close resemblance 

 to the Tubularia hnplexa of Alder, and I have little doubt is 

 identical with it ; in which case Tubularia impleoca is, as I 

 suspected, a Coryne. It has the same double structure in the 

 tube of the corallum, and the thread-cells, both inform and size, 

 are identical. The polyp of the species is distinguished, from 

 all others of its genus which have come under my notice by 

 the extreme transparency of its tissues, and the small size of 

 its tentacles ; in which last particular it resembles the Coryne 

 pelagica of Alder, and even approaches Myriothela artica. 

 The thread-cells on the tip of the capitate tentacle are of 

 very small size, as in Myriothela, with the exception of one, or 

 sometimes two, of the large cells which are found in the same 

 situation in other species of Coryne. 



3. Bimeria vestita. (Plate II., fig. 4.) 



Polypary minute, very slender, branched, smooth, or wrinkled near the divi- 

 ion of the branches, enclosed in a transparent horny corallum ; polyps vase- 

 haped, destitute of proboscis ; tentacles slender, alternate, as in Eudendrium ; 



corallum, body, mouth, and lower half of each of tentacles of polyp clothed in 



an opaque brow r n membrane ; thread-cells inconspicuous. 



This remarkable zoophyte first occurred to me on the Bimer 

 Pock, near North Queensferry, in August last, and afterwards 

 to Dr M'Bain and myself on Inch Garvie. It differs from all 

 zoophytes hitherto described in being completely clothed — as 

 the corallum, the bodies of its polyps, and part of their ten- 

 tacles — in a thick, soft membrane, which appears to be formed 



