PLUMULARIANS. 
227 
the body is protected by it, the rest is always exposed. In the 
present species a conspicuous band of opaque-white encircles the 
body, like a girdle, a little below the tentacles, and adds much 
to the beauty of a colony in full life and activity, when its many 
polypites are in eager pursuit of prey, stretching themselves for- 
ward, and casting forth their flower-like wreaths, now suddenly 
clasping their arms together, and then as suddenly flinging them 
back ; now holding them motionless, the tips elegantly recurved, 
and then on some alarm shrinking into half their size, and fold- 
ing them together like flowers closing their petals when the 
sun is gone. Distributed over the stem and branches are a 
number of smaller cups ( calicetti , the Italians call them) of 
peculiar form and structure, which contain, not hydrse, but 
zooids of another kind, of which I shall have much to say 
(PI. CXI., fig. 3 s ). They are very characteristic of the Plu- 
mularian family, and, as we shall see, suggest some curious 
speculations ; and, it may be, afford a clue to the genealogy of 
the tribe. 
And if in the polypites, with their wreathed arms, which stud 
the surface of these vegetative animals, we may fancy a resem- 
blance to the flowers of the plant, we may also find the counter- 
part of the seed-vessel in the elegant reproductive capsules 
scattered throughout the colony. In the species now under 
consideration ( Plumularia cornucopias , ) they assume the shape 
of an inverted horn, and are formed of material translucent 
as the finest glass. Each of them, in fact, is a little crystal 
cornucopia, in which is lodged one of the reproductive members 
of the commonwealth, a class totally distinct from that which is 
charged with the function of alimentation. These graceful 
receptacles are several times larger than the calycles, from the 
base of which they spring, singly or in pairs, and within them 
the ova are produced and the embryos matured which are to 
give rise to new colonies. (PI. CXI., fig. 3 g.) 
It must be noted in passing that there is nothing stiff or 
angular in these beautiful organisms ; no awkward attitude or 
graceless line. They are flexile and wavy ; the mid-rib of the 
plumes is bent into the prettiest curves, and the pinnae are 
elegantly arched. They are like the Birch amongst trees, in 
lightness, delicacy, and grace. 
PLumularia cornucopias belongs, as I have said, to the 
section of the family in which the calycles are more or less 
remote from one another, and the polypites Only partially re- 
tractile. In this division the 66 calicetti ” * are distributed at 
* I do not know whether my readers will thank me for informing them 
that these 11 little cups ” have been named “Nematophores” and “Sarco- 
thecse ” by writers on the Ilydroida. 
