554 
ZOOPHYTA. NUDA, 
Hydiia. 
Height about an inch, transparent, brownish, or greenish, and consisting 
of a gelatinous matter, interspersed with minute granular glands. The body 
is tubular, and open at both ends ; simple or branched ; tentacula varying 
in number or height. The food, consisting of small annulose animals, is 
seized by the tentacula, and conveyed to the alimentary canal, whence, after 
digestion, it is ejected by the mouth. The absorbed nourishment is dispersed 
through the glands even to the tentacula. The animal displaces itself and 
creeps like a leech by the help of its mouth and tail, and even suspends it- 
self from the surface of the water by its tail, which it expands like a funnel 
for the purpose. The reproduction of this singular being, by buds, issuing 
from the sides of the parent polype, acquiring tentacula, and then falling off 
and becoming independent individuals, or by the regeneration of parts when 
artificially divided, has long engaged the attention of the curious observer. 
The animals may easily be procured by placing a quantity of the stems of 
plants growing under water in any slow running ditch, in a basin of clean 
water ; and in a short time the polypi will expand, and exhibit themselves 
readily to the naked eye. 
Inhabiting the Sea, 
S08. H. lutea. — Branched, ovate, truncated, with about ten 
short tentacula. 
Lamarck^ Hist. ii. 60. — On fuci, Belfast, Mr Templeton. 
Height upwards of half an inch, stem narrow, head much enlarged ; teru 
tacula thick, not equal in length to the breadth of the body. The above de- 
scription is from the drawing of an animal communicated to me by the late 
Mr Templeton. 
209. H. coronata.--Bodiy slender, head suborbicular, trun- 
cated, with a flat disc ; the tentacula issuing at the margin 
from sheaths which radiate from the centre. 
Ellis^ Cor. t. xxxviii. f. 5. — On Plumularia falcata. 
Mr Ellis has given a figure of this animal, which does not seem to have 
attracted the notice of sub^sequent observers. He states that it was of a red 
colour, and that the tentacula “ issued out of their sheaths like a star- 
flower.” — The true place in the system, of this and the preceding species, re- 
mains to be determined. 
Facilius mirari et commentari quam vera dignoscere et dejinire. 
