360 SERPULA VERMICULARIS. 
and measures 3 or 4 inches in length, with a smoothly rounded and dilated trumpet-like 
aperture, various lines of growth, and occasionally with a keel more or less rough. Ante- 
riorly it is straight or with a wide curve, but posteriorly is often coiled in a spiral manner. 
It is attached to shells, masses of Cellepora, to rocks, stones or vases thrown into the sea, 
and is generally solitary, though masses of the tubes occasionally occur both in the north 
and west of Scotland. When on the inner surface of the lower (flat) valve of a large oyster 
the tubes are nearly parallel. In some the prolongation of the tube takes place from the 
narrower (inner) edge of the trumpet, and thus four or five prominent rings may be formed 
anteriorly. Fauvel describes seven longitudinal ridges in the typical form of tube, of which 
the median dorsal is the most conspicuous, and Chamberlin mentions that those from 
British Columbia had a tinge of green. 
Reproduction.—Ripe specimens of Serpula vermicularis not more than about ten months 
old yielded an excellent result on fertilising the ova.! 
Aldrovandus (1606), under De Testaceis, after the figure of Sabella penicillus, represents 
various tubes of Serpulids on pp. 561 and 562; the middle figure on the latter page probably 
refers to those of Serpula vermicularis, as diagnosed in the work of Rondeletius, with the 
tails projecting from the ends of the tubes. It may, however, represent tubes of another 
species, such as Hydroides. 
Klein’ (1731), mm his * Descriptiones Tubulorum Marinorum,’ mentions two tubes: “ (1) 
Solen fragilior digitum longus, gracilis, extus rugosus intus levis aqua repletus, and (2) Solen 
fragilior interspersa arena, ita tamen ut, extus eque ac intus levis sit & diaphanus ” (p. 7, 
No. 2, Tab. i, fig. 5). It is difficult to identify these. He describes under Genus I, Penicill, 
Pemcillum marinum, Pinceau de Mer. (Tab. i, fig. 1)—a form which appears to be Serpula 
vermicularis. It is followed by Dentaliwm, Solen, ete. 
lis (1756), in his “Corallines,’ gives a good figure of this form, with six thoracic bristles 
on the left, and five on the right—a reduced number, probably due to his artist or to an 
abnormal specimen. 
In Plate III of Martini’s ‘Conchology’ (1769) is figured (fig. 24a) a mass of coiled tubes 
of a Serpulid like those of this species. 
Guettard (1774) included this and other marine tube-dwellers along with such forms as 
Teredo, but differentiated the inhabitants in each case, and his figure is recognizable. In 
referring to Klein’s forms he found it difficult to determine the species. 
In Montagu’s MS. (1808) in the Linnean Society the figure of Infundibula triquetra more 
resembles Serpula vermicularis than any other species. <A figure of Amphitrite bicirrata in 
this volume shows a deeply ribbed Serpula, and is exquisitely figured by Miss D’Orville (his 
niece), but its identity is uncertain. 
Dr. Johnston’s Serpula intricata, as shown in one of his sketches, is an abnormal example 
of Hydroides norvegica, in which the distal crown has lost its processes and appears like a 
second grooved inverted cone or cup-like structure. 
Philippi (1844) severely criticises De Blainville for his confusing account of this form 
in his ‘ Dict. Se. Nat.,’ p. 538, and, further, adds that Cuvier described the operculum as 
having two or three small pots, which it has not. 
. 1 Orton. ‘Journ. M. B. A.,’ vol. x, p. 316, 1914. 
IP, Up aNlOo he 
