144 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
only streaked with intercepted lines of red, which distend at one place 
and contract at another ; they spread out the pinna-, and the polypes 
expand their tentacnla, but they never attempt to swim, or perform 
any process of locomotion.” 
P. mirabilis is common in the east and north coasts of Scotland. 
The virgularia* differ from the pennatula chiefly in their develop- 
ment, relative to the axis of the colony and the shortness of the pinnae, 
which carry the polypes ; and in this, that no spiculse enter into the 
composition of its softer parts. V. mirabilis is found in the North 
Sea, on the coast of Scotland, and as far north as Norway. In 
Zetland it is known as the sea-rush. It is abundant in Belfast Lough, 
hut, from its brittle nature, perfect specimens are difficult to obtain. 
“It seems,” says Sowerby, “ to represent a quill stripped of its 
feathers. The base looks like a pen in this as in other species, 
swelling a little way from the end, and then tapering. The upper 
part is thicker, with alternate semicircular pectinated swellings, larger 
towards the middle, tapering upwards, and terminating in a thin bony 
substance, which passes through the whole extent, and is from six to 
ten inches in length.” 
In a communication to Dr. Johnston, from Mr. K. Patterson of 
Belfast, commenting on Muller’s figure of Virgularia, he tells us that in 
the longest specimen he had, no two plumes were precisely alike — - 
so unlike, indeed, that the artist copying one, could not for a moment 
hesitate, after raising her eyes from her paper, to look at the animal, 
as to which she was copying. 
Its short waving and deeply dentated wings are of a brilliant yellow. 
The polypes, which appear upon their lobes, are whitish, transparent, 
and form a fringe of small diaphanous white stars (Figs. 62 and 63). 
We may figure to ourselves a slender wand-like and much-elongated 
polypier, carrying only a non-contractile polype on one side, which 
would give us an idea of the Pavonaria, of which we know only one 
species, which is from the Mediterranean. 
Virgularia mirabilis is undoubtedly one of the finest polypiers 
found in the ocean. Two series of half-moon shaped wings, obliquely 
horizontal, are placed symmetrically round an upright axis. They 
embrace the stem somewhat in the manner termed petiolate by bota- 
nists, clasping it alternately ; or, shall we say, like two broad ribbons 
rolled round a stem in an inverse direction, in such a manner as to 
