Plumatella. 
Z. ASCIDIOIDA. 
323 
Hab. “ On the underside of stones, Lochmill-loch, Fife,” Flem- 
ing. u Not unfrequent in a rivulet of beautifully clear water, at Nor- 
ton, in the county of Durham,” John Hogg , Esq. 
“ Stem extending several inches, irregularly branched, slightly en- 
larging towards the aperture, dilatable ; tentacular margin divided 
into two lobes, tentacula ciliated in opposite directions. Besides a 
gullet, stomach, and gut, there is a distinct rectum, terminating in a 
tubular orifice seated externally to the tentacular margin, out of which 
I have witnessed the remains of the food swallowed but a short time 
before forcibly ejected.” Fleming. 
'2. P. gelatinosa, u free , branched ; tentacula circularly dis- 
posed.” — Rev. Dr Fleming. 
Tubularia gelatinosa, Pall. Elench. 35 Plumatella gelatinosa, Flem. 
Br. Anim. 553. 
Hab. u Found along with the preceding,” Fleming. 
“ Height about two inches, tufted, shrubby ; stem dichotomously 
branched, scarcely enlarging at the extremity ; polypi with a bell- 
shaped disk, the tentacula regularly disposed, and appearing as if 
webbed at the base ; mouth with a valve.” Fleming. 
3. P. sultana, irreqularlu branched ; tentacula campanulate. 
J. G. Dalyell. 
Tubularia sultana, Blumenb. Man. 272. pi. 1. fig. 9. Bose , Vers, iii. 93. 
Hab. Fresh water. Near Foulden, Berwickshire, Dalyell. 
Polypidom irregularly branched, about an inch in height, earthy 
brown, roughish and opaque, the tubes short, cylindrical and unjoint- 
ed ; polypes entirely retractile, with about 20 slender white tentacu- 
la, assuming when expanded a regular campanulate figure. Blumen- 
bach says they are ciliated at the base. 
As I have already stated, Raspail considers the Plumatellae (with 
the exception of P. sultana, which he does not mention,) to be mere- 
ly states of the Alcyonella,* — an opinion which future inquiries may 
shew to be true, but at present there are some difficulties in the way 
of its adoption. Pallas had examined both the Polypes-a-panache of 
(not Bull. des. Sciences Nat.) p, 157, no. 81, an 12 (de la Republique)=1804, 
belonging to an extract from a memoir by Vauclier on the fresh- water Tubulariae : 
there fig. 1. much resembles the polypary in its natural state, but the animal mag- 
nified is not near so like as that figured in the former work : however neither 
plates do justice to the polypes.” 
* Mr J. E. Gray, in 1832, says, “ It is probable that the Plumatellae may be 
only the young of the Alcyonellae.” Syn. of Brit. Mus. p. 75. 
