51 
TAB. XXV. 
PENNATULA mirabilis? 
Slender Sea Pen. 
Class 6. Vermes. Order 4. Zoophyta. 
Gen. Char. Animal not affixed, of various shapes, 
supported by a bone running through the middle, 
naked at the base, the upper part generally with 
lateral ramifications, furnished with rows of tu- 
bular denticles, producing radiate polypes from 
each tube. 
Spec. Char. Stem filiform, with lunate, denticulated, 
alternate ramifications at the top, growing smaller 
towards the bottom, which is naked. 
Syn. Pennatula mirabilis. Gmel. Syst. Nat. v. 1 . 3865, 
I he natural construction of these animals is curiously 
imitative of a quill not stripped of its feathers, in most of 
the species ; but the one before us seems to represent a quill 
Stripped of its feathers. The base looks like a pen in this 
as well as in the other species, swelling a little 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 
