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PH Gosse del. tlith
Umandd & Welton
NATURALIST’S RAMBLES
ON THE
DEVONSHIRE COAST.
PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, A.LS., &.
AUTHOR OF ‘THE OCEAN,’ ‘A NATURALIST’S SOJOURN IN
JAMAICA 3? &e.
What prodigies can power Divine perform,
More grand than it produces year by year,
And all in sight of inattentive man ?
CowPER.
LONDON :
JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.
M. DCCC. LIII.
PREFACE.
Tue following pages I have endeavoured, as far as possible,
to make a mirror of the thoughts and feelings that have
occupied my own mind during a nine months’ residence on
the charming shores of North and South Devon. There
I have been pursuing an occupation which always pos-
sesses for me new delight,—the study of the curious forms,
and still more curious instincts, of animated beings. So
interesting, so attractive has the pursuit been, so unex-
pected in many instances the facts revealed by the research,
that I have thought the attempt to convey, with pen and
pencil, to others the impressions vividly received by my-
self might be a welcome service.
Few, very few, are at all aware of the many strange,
beautiful, or wondrous objects that are to be found by
searching on those shores:‘that every season are crowded
by idle pleasure-seekers. Most curious and interesting ~
animals are dwelling within a few yards of your feet,
whose lovely forms and hues, exquisitely contrived struc-
tures, and amusing instincts, could not fail to attract and
eharm your attention, if you were once cognizant of them.
‘But who will be our guide to such sources of interest ?”’
Deign to accept these pages as your ‘“‘ Hand-book”’ to the
sea-side. They contain a faithful record of what actually
has fallen under an individual’s observation in a single
season, and may therefore be assumed to present a fair
average of what may be expected again.
But I have not made a book of systematic zoology; nor
dL
¢
‘ Boas bp PRL. :
V1. PREFACE.
a book of mere zoology of any sort. I venture to ask
your companionship, courteous Reader, in my Rambles
over field and down in the fresh dewy morning; I ask
you to listen with me to the carol of the lark, and the hum
of the wild bee; I ask you to stand with me at the edge
of the precipice and mark the glories of the setting sun;
to watch with me the mantling tide as it rolls inward, and
roars among the hollow caves; I ask you to share with
me the delightful emotions which the contemplation of
unbounded beauty and beneficence ever calls up in the
cultivated mind.
Hence I have not scrupled to sketch pen-pictures of the
lovely and romantic scenery with which both the coasts
of Devon abound ;: and to press into my service personal
narrative, local anecdote, and traditionary legend ; and, in
short, any and every thing, that, having conveyed pleasure
and interest to myself, I thought might entertain and
please my reader. It is not the least of the advantages
of the study of natural history, that it strengthens in us
‘“‘the habit of wishing to discover the good and the beau-
tiful in all that meet and surround us.”
If it should be objected that—to treat of the facts which
science reveals to us, in any other manner than that tech-
nical measured style, which aims not at conveying any
pleasurable emotions beyond the mere acquisition of know-
ledge, and is therefore satisfied with being coldly correct,
—is to degrade science below its proper dignity, I would
modestly reply that I think otherwise. That the increase
of knowledge is in itself a pleasure to a healthy mind is
surely true; but is there not in our hearts a chord that
thrills in response to the beautiful, the joyous, the perfect,
in Nature: I aim to convey to my reader, to reflect, as it
were, the complacency which is produced in my own
mind by the contemplation of the excellence impressed on
everything which God has created.
PREFACE. Vil.
Wordsworth has said that man and nature are essen-
tially adapted to each other, and that the mind of man is
naturally the mirror of the fairest and most interesting
properties of Nature. The same mighty mover of the
human heart tells us that ‘“‘ Poetry is the impassioned
expression which is the countenance of all Science.”” And
all that is required to make the remotest discoveries of the
Man of Science proper objects of the Poet’s art is famili-
arity with them, so that ‘‘ the relations under which they
are contemplated by the student be manifestly and palpably
material to us, as enjoying and suffering beings.”
Another eloquent writer thus speaks of the relation
existing between Poetry and the Physical Sciences.
“Such studies lift the mind into the truly sublime of
nature. The poet’s dream is the dim reflection of a
distant star: the philosopher’s revelation is a strong
telescopic examination of its features. One is the mere
echo of the remote whisper of nature’s voice in the dim
twilight; the other is the swelling music of the harp of
Memnon, awakened by the Sun of truth, newly risen from
the night of ignorance.”’*
Yet I would not have it supposed that I have ever
stated the facts of Natural History in a loose, vague,
imaginative way. Precision is the very soul of science,—
precision in observation, truthfulness in record: and I
should deem myself unworthy of a place among natu-
ralists, if I were not studious to exhibit the phenomena
of Nature with the most scrupulous care and _ fidelity.
Humanum est errare: I dare not suppose I have escaped
error; but I am sure it is not the result of wilfulness, I
trust it is not that of carelessness.
Some of the investigations here touched upon are of
high interest to naturalists: such as those connected with
* Hunt’s ‘ Poetry of Science’, p. 292.
vill. PREFACE.
the alternation of generations, the embryology and develop-
ment of the Zoophytes, and the nature and functions of
their special organs. The varied forms and singular
properties of the Thread-Capsules in the Polypes and the
Meduse, in particular, have excited my own admiration.
The curious observations of Sir J. G. Dalyell and other
zoologists on the propagation of the Hydroid Zoophytes,
might seem to render those recorded.in this volume need-
less; but the words of the indefatigable naturalist just
named warrant the multiplication of observed facts.
Speaking of the mysterious appearance of certain Meduse
in connexion with Tudularie, he says, ‘‘ Were similar —
instances recorded, our embarassments might be relieved ;
for more frequent, easier, and stricter investigation being
admitted, doubtless such a train of discovery, and thence
the solution of what are tous the most abstruse problems,
would follow.”
The plates have been all drawn from living nature, with
the greatest attention to accuracy. They are twenty
eight in number, of which twelve are printed in colours :
they comprise about two hundred and forty figures of
animals and their component parts, in many instances
drawn with the aid of the microscope.
London: March 80th, 1853.
i Oh il py aig ps
CHAPTER I.
A Flitting to the Coast—Rival Claims of North and South De-
von—Marychurch selected—Beauty of Devonshire Lanes—
Author’s Outfit—First exploring Jaunt—Babbicombe Sands
—Pretty Rock-pool—Petit Tor—Jackdaws—Kestrel—Pol-
lock-fishing on the Rocks—Boulders examined—Contents of
a shallow Pool—Green Sea-worm—Smooth Anemone—Turn-
ing stones at Babbicombe—Finger-cutting Serpule—Naked-
gilled Mollusca—Their Elegance and Beauty—Manners in
Captivity—Spawn of Doris—Form and Structure of the
young—Anthea—Its Form and Colours—Voracity of an Eolis
—Manners of Anthea—Its Mode of marching—of swimming
—Beautiful Variety—Reflections. Page 1
CHAPTER II.
Petit Tor—Squirrel—Limestone Ledge—Stone-borers—Anemones
and Sea-weeds—Clear Rock-pools—Daisy Anemone—Diffi-
culty of procuring Specimens—Mode of Operation—A
Metamorphosis—Description of the Species—Tentacles—
Colours—Varieties—Habits—Structure of the Tentacles —
Thread-shooting Capsules—Petit Tor Pools—Thick horned
Anemone—Description of the Species—Suggestions of Iden-
tity with th of an inch, measured from its
origin to its dorsal margin; of this the cavity, and
the foot or tube, make nearly an equal division.
Another specimen shows me more distinctly the
manner of growth.. Along the delicate frond of a
Rhodymenia, runs a shelly pellucid thread of excessive
tenacity, from which, at intervals of about a line,
spring up the rows of single cells. ‘The whole appear-
ance reminds me of a Laomedea. The foot of the
first cell, at its emergence from the root thread, is
constricted at short intervals, so as to resemble joints,
or nodes. In another case the thread wanders over
the rock, or rather over the thin stratum of incipient
Coralline, which covers it. (Fig. 2.)
No ray of phosphoric light was elicited on plunging
specimens into fresh water in the dark, though the
experiment was repeatedly tried.
Fig. 1 represents the zouphyte of the natural size.
Fig. 2, the same enlarged. Fig. 3, A single polype,
viewed sidewise, retracted, much magnified. Fig. 4,
the same extruded. Fig. 5, the same, retracted, viewed
in front.
THE SNAKE-HEAD CORALLINE.
The crevices between the slanting ridges of the
slaty rocks at Hele form little angular pools, densely
fringed with various species of red sea-weeds, many
of which are of exceeding delicacy and beauty, and
142 THE SNAKE-HEAD.
grow under the shadow of the overhanging ridges
with profuse luxuriance. Among these I found that
elegant species, Delesserta hypoglossum. Around its
base and twining up the lower part of its frond were
two interesting little zoophytes which had entwined
their slender trailing stems with each other, in irregu-
lar tortuous windings, forming a sort of mat. One of
these was Anguinaria spatulata. It consists of a
long creeping stem, which embraces the sea-weed,
just as a creeping plant does a tree, throwing out, at
irregular intervals, the cells, which form the habi-
tations of the polypes. These cells are unlike those
of any other zoophyte; each consist of a bent cylin-
drical neck of considerable length, swollen at the end
into an oblong head, which is open on one side some-
what like a spoon, (Plate VII, fig. 15); whence the
specific name: the resemblance however of the cell to
the head of a snake is much more obvious, and has
given rise to the generic appellation, and this likeness
is increased by numerous rings that surround the
neck throughout its length, somewhat like the cart-
lages of the windpipe. The swollen head is marked
with minute punctured dots, arranged in lines paral-
lel to the rings of the neck, of which they are a con-
tinuation; though the distinction between them is
abrupt and well marked.
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ITS STRUCTURE. 191
very slender branching plant. (Plate IX. Fig. 1.) It is
altogether about as thick as fine sewing cotton; an
irregularly winding thread creeps along the frond of
the sea-weed, clinging firmly to it as it goes, yet not
so tenaciously but that it may be pulled away with-
out dividing. This creeping root sends off frequent
rootlets, which crossing each other appear to anasto-
mose, making a sort of net-work of a few oblong areas.
Free stalks shoot up here and there from the creeping
stem, one of which in my specimen is upwards
of three inches in length: they show a very slight
disposition to ramification; but send forth at short
intervals the polype-branchlets, irregularly on all sides.
A few of these are compound, one branchlet giving
origin to another from its side. The creeping fibre,
the stalk, and the branchlets are seen under the
microscope to be tubular, and the two latter are mark-
ed throughout their course with close-set rings, or
false joints, apparently produced by the annular infold-
ing of a small portion of the integument. (Fig. 2.) The
tube is of a yellowish-brown colour, sufficiently trans-
lucent to reveal a core or central axis of flesh running
along its centre, and sending off branches into the
polype-branchlets, from the open tips of which the
flesh emerges in the form of a thickened oblong head,
somewhat club-shaped, whence the name Coryne, (from
xoptvn, & Club) which has been assigned to this
genus by naturalists. The tube or sheath becomes
membranous, or I think gelatinous, (like that of some
Rotifera) at its margin, the ultimate three or four
rings being evidently soft, scarcely consistent, viscid
(entangling extraneous matters), almost colourless,
192 THE BRANCHING CORYNE.
of undefined outline, and larger than the rest.
The polype-flesh, which is very slender within the
tube, enlarges rapidly as it emerges. The club-
shaped head of the polype is studded with short
tentacles of curious and beautiful structure. They
vary much in number on each polype, but the full
complement appears to be from twenty-five to thirty ;
they are arranged in somewhat of a whorled manner,
in four or five whorls, which are, however, (especially
the lower ones) often irregular and scarcely distinct.
Four tentacles usually constitute the final whorl ;
about six the next, the others respectively contain
seven or eight, and ten or twelve. The tentacles
spring from the axis with a graceful curve, they are
rather thick and short, when contracted, but slender
when elongated, nearly equal in diameter, except at
the termination, where each is furnished with a glo-
bose head. This head (See Figs. 3 and 4) is studded
with minute tubercles on every part, which reflect the
light, and which viewed by transmitted light are seen
to be the terminations of numerous oval cells or folli-
cles“set in a divergent manner around the centre.
Each tubercle is tipped with a minute bristle. The
neck or body of the tentacle is perfectly transparent,
pellucid, whitish or nearly colourless, and appears to
be atube with thin walls slightly hairy on the surface,
but containing a colourless thickish axis, freely per-
meating its centre, marked with delicate parallel
rings. The globose knobs at the tips of the tenta-
cles remind me of the unexpanded blossoms of an
Acacia: they are generally tinged with pale red,
and in some polypes, especially terminal ones, they
THE EGG-VESICLES. 193
are of a fine rose colour, and have an attractive
appearance.
The tentacles are endowed with the power of free
motion, and they frequently throw themselves to and
fro with considerable energy ; when perfectly at ease
they are carried projecting at right angles from the
polype, but are more commonly curved up towards it.
The whole polype can be also tossed from side to side
at pleasure. The tentacles are contractile and exten-
sile in some degree; for if the animal be taken out of
water for an instant, and again replaced, these organs
are found to be shrunk up to less than half of their
former length. In a few minutes they recover their
extension.
Some of the polype heads are furnished with organs
of another kind. Among the tentacles, chiefly of the
lower whorls, are seen one or two oval bodies, about
twice or thrice as large as a tentacle-head, which are
attached by short footstalks to the polype-body. They
are composed of a clear jelly-like granular mass, with
an oval dark nucleus in the centre, connected with the
attachment: the nucleus is of an orange or yellow
hue, and is coarsely granulated. In some that I kept,
this dark nucleus became larger until it almost filled
the interior; but the death of the animals prevented
my seeing the full development. These are egg-cap-
sules, as I afterwards ascertained.
About the end of August a fine specimen in one
of my glasses fell under my notice, as having an appear-
ance which made me think that it had just renewed
its polype-heads after the old ones had decayed away.
But in looking at it I saw that one head bore two
S
194 DISCHARGE OF THE EGGS.
ovigerous vesicles of so large a size that I at once
isolated the head in hopes of witnessing the develop-
ment of the embryo.
The capsules showed the same structure, but as
one was larger and evidently more developed than the
other, I selected that one for particular examination.
(Fig. 5). It was perfectly spherical, with a short
footstalk, through which a neck of dark brown sub-
stance connected with the central nucleus, which
was also dark brown, round or slightly oval, and well-
defined. This nucleus is not an aggregation of ova,
as Dr. Johnston seems to suppose (Br. Zooph. 39),
but a sort of placenta around which many ova are
arranged, in the manner shown at Fig. 5 (representing
for clearness sake a section). ‘These ova fill the
whole space between the nucleus and the walls of the
capsule; they are of a clear, yellowish-brown hue,
slightly granular in texture, rondo-triangular in form,
with one angle resting on the placental nucleus.
I had not been watching the capsule many minutes
before its gelatinous walls burst at the side the
farthest from the footstalk; and the ova began to
issue forth in quick succession, as shewn at Fig. 6,
It appeared that the elasticity of the walls was the
immediate cause of their exit, for they were evidently
pressed out; and towards the end of the process when
few remained, the collapse of the walls became quite
evident, and when the last ovum was excluded, the
capsule had shrunk up so as to leave scarcely any
appreciable space between the skin and the nucleus,
which latter remained unchanged
‘T'wenty five ova were thus excluded from one cap-
THEIR STRUCTURE. 195
sule, the process being all over in about a minute.
To my surprise they were neither medusoids, nor
ciliated planules, but soft gelatinous animate eggs,
closely like those of Rotifera, without the least
appearance of cilia, or of spontaneous motion (Fig. 7),
They all sank immediately to the bottom of the glass
cell, and remained motionless, as far as respects
change of place. But after several hours I perceived
that each egg was undergoing a constant change of
shape, reminding me of those alterations of outline
seen in the Ameba among Infusoria. Sometimes a
constriction would appear across one end of an egg,
which would move towards the middle, cutting it into
two portions, then be slowly obliterated. Or from
some point in the circumference little swellings would
protrude, and these I have reason to think separated,
for though I did not actually see this done, I saw
several small globules lying by, of exactly the same
substance and colour as the ova themselves. Or an
egg would imperceptibly become from round to oval,
thence to pear-shaped, and thence assume some
irregular form, and gradually revert to its original
appearance. ‘These changes were slow in operation,
but they indicate that the ovum remains soft and
shell-less, and that there is a principle of volition
within it. They one by one decomposed.
THE BIRD'S HEAD CORALLINE.
In one of the shallow pools near the base of Cap-
stone Hill, I took several beautiful specimens of one
of the prettiest of the Polyzoan polypes, Cellularia
196 THE BIRD 'S-HEAD CORALLINE.
avicularia. Well does it deserve the name of Bird’s
head Coralline, given it by the illustrious Ellis, for
it possesses those curious appendages that resem-
ble Vulture’s heads, in great perfection. All these
specimens of mine were most thickly studded with
them, not a cell without its bird’s head, and all see-
sawing, and snapping, and opening the jaws, with the
most amusing activity, and (what was marvellous)
equally active on one specimen from whose cells all
the polypes had died away, as in those in which
the polypes were protruding their lovely bells of
tentacles.
The polypidoms were distinctly visible to the naked
eye, and attracted my attention before [ touched them,
while yet in their native pool; though of course I did
not know what they were until I examined them to
better advantage. Some of them stand two inches in
height, and are about one third of an inch in widest
diameter. The cells are set in longitudinal series, _
two or three rows abreast, and closely adhering; the
branchlets thus formed divide dichotomously, (that is,
into two, and each of these into two more, and so on,)
and so make broad fan-shaped branches, which. are
segments of funnels: and the peculiar elegance of
this zoophyte consists in the mode in which these
ultimate branches are set on the stem, viz. in a spiral
turn, so that the effect is that of several funnels set
one within another, but which yet are seen, on turning
the whole round, to compose one corkscrew band of
fans. (See Plate X. fig. L.)
The stem ascends perpendicularly from a slender
base which is attached to the rock, or to the cells of
oe ee ee eA ene (ae
CRLLULARIA AVICULARIA .
Any
—
o.
LIVING MICROSCOPY. 197
a Lepralia which encrust the rock; the midmost
part of the spire is most expansive, whence the
diminution above and below is pretty regular, The
general colour, while alive, is pale buff, but the cells
become nearly white in death.
When examined microscopically it is, however, that
the curious organization of this zoophyte is discovered,
especially when examined in full health and vigour,
with all the beautiful polypes protruded and expanded
to the utmost, on the watch for prey. Itseems to me
a poor thing to strain one’s eyes at a microscope Over
a dead and dry polypidom, as it does to examine a
shrivelled and blackened flower out of a herbarium ;
though I know well that both the one and the other
are often indispensable for the making out of techni-
cal characters. But if you want to get an insight
into the structure and functions of any of these
minute animals, especially such as are so transparent
that all the offices of life are discernible in active
operation, or if you want to be charmed with the
perception of beauty, or delighted with new and sin-
gular adaptations of means to ends, or if you desire
to see vitality under some of its most unusual and yet
most interesting phases, or if you would have emotions
of adoring wonder excited, and the tribute of praise
elicited to that mighty Lord God who made all things
for his own glory,—then take such a zoophyte as this,
fresh from his clear tide-pool, take him without injury
done by violently tearing him from his attachment,
and therefore detach with care a minute portion of the
surface-rock itself, and then drop him with every
organ in full activity into a narrow glass cell with
198 THE BIRDS HEADS.
parallel sides, filled with the purest sea-water, and
put the whole on the stage of your microscope with a
power of not more than 100 linear, at least for the
first examination ;—I greatly mistake if you will not
confess that the intellectual treat obtained is well
worth, aye, ten times more than worth, all your
trouble. i
The cells of the Bird’s-head Coralline are oblong,
shaped somewhat like a sack of corn, with a spine
ascending from each of the upper corners. (See figs.
2 and 3.) Each stands on the summit of its prede-
cessor in the same row, and side by side with those of
its fellow rows, in such an order that the top of one
cell comes opposite the middle of the one beside it.
The top of the cellis rounded and appears imperforate,
but we shall presently find an opening there. The
broad side that faces inwardly has a large elliptical
transparent space occupying nearly its whole surface,
which, from its well-defined edges, I was long tempted
to think, was really a great aperture, though delicate
manipulation appeared to give a very subtle surface
to it; this, as I subsequently found, is covered with a
very thin and elastic membrane, and answers a pecu-
har end. Just below one of the spines that crowns
the summit of the cell, on one of the edges, rather on
the interior than on the exterior, is situated a little
tubercle, to which is attached, by a very free joint, a
bird’s-head process, in all essential particulars agree-
ing with that of Cellularia cilitata which I have
already described. The lower mandible in this case
is, however, set farther back, and the upper is desti-
tute of those tooth-like serratures that characterize it
' THE POLYPES. 199
in the kindred species. The motions are exactly
the same in both cases. I observe that sometimes the
place of the bird’s head is occupied by an oval or
pear-shaped body, which is probably an early stage of
its development; and when perfectly formed there
is much difference of size, some of these curious
organs being twice as large as others on the same
specimen.
Now let us come to the polype itself. Itis when
we get a good dateral view of a single inhabited cell,
that we obtain a knowledge of the structure of the
tenant. The summit of the cell is then seen to pro-
trude, diagonally towards the inner side,—(i.e. to-
wards the axis of the spire) a tubular mouth, which
is membranous and contractile. When the animal
wishes to emerge, this tubular orifice is pushed out
by evolution of the integument, and the tentacles are
exposed to view, closely pressed into a parallel bun-
dle (See fig. 4); the evolution of the integument, that
is attached at their base, goes on till the whole is
straightened, when the tentacles diverge and assume
the form of a funnel, or rather that of a wide-mouthed
bell, the tips being slightly everted (See fig. 5).
They are furnished with a double row of short czlia
in the usual order, one set working upward, the other
downward. Their base surrounds a muscular thick
ring, the entrance to a funnel-shaped sac, the substance
of which is granular, and evidently muscular, for its
contractions and expansions are very vigorous, and
yet delicate. Into this first stomach passes with a
sort of gulp any animalcule, whirled to the bottom of
the funnel by the ciliary vortex, and from thence it is
200 THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM.
delivered, through a contracted, but still rather wide
gullet, into an oblong stomach, the lower portion of
which is obtuse. An extremely attenuated duct con-
nects this, which is probably the true stomach, with a
globular, rather small, intestine, which is again con-
nected by a lengthened thread with the base of the cell.
By an arrangement common to the ascidian type of
the digestive function, the food is returned from the
intestine into the true stomach, whence the effete parts
are discharged, through a wide and thick tube that
issues from it close behind the poimt where the gullet
enters. This rectal tube passes upwards parallel to
the gullet, and terminates by an orifice outside and
behind the base of the tentacles. All these viscera
are beautifully distinct and easily identified, owing to
the perfect transparency of the walls of the cell, the
simplicity of the parts, and their density and dark
yellow colour. All of them are manifestly granular
in texture, except the slender corrugated tube which
connects the stomach with the globose intestine:
this is thin and membranous, and is: doubtless, if I
may judge from analogy, capable of wide expansion
for the passage of the food-pellet.
The sudden contraction of the polype into its cell
upon disturbance or alarm, and its slow and gradual
emergence again, afford excellent opportunities for
studying the forms, proportions, and relative positions,
of the internal organs. In contraction, the globular
intestine remains nearly where it was, but the stomach
slides down into the cell behind it, as far as the flex-
ible duct will allow, and the thick gullet bows out in
front, shewing more clearly the separation between it
THE CELL-MEMBRANE. 201
and the rectum, and the insertion of both into the
stomach. This retractation is in part effected by
a pair of longitudinal muscular bands, which are
inserted at the back of the bottom part of the cell, and
into the skin of the neck below the tentacles. The
contraction of these bands draws in the integument
like the drawing of a stocking within itself, and
forces down the viscera into the cavity of the
cell, which is probably filled with the vital juices:
(See Fig. 4).
Besides the hind bands there is one or a pair of
similar muscular bands attached on each side of the
Jront part of the base of the cell, and inserted simi-
larly into the neck. It was while watching the con-
traction of these that I discovered with pleasure the
use of the membrane-covered aperture up the front of
the cell. At the moment of the retractation of the
viscera into the cell, a large angular membrane was
forced outward from the front side, which was pro-
truded more or less in proportion to the degree of
withdrawal of the polype, and as the latter emerged
again, the membrane fell back to its place. It is
evident then that this a provision for enlarging the
cavity; the walls are horny and probably almost
inelastic, but when the stomach forces the intestine
forward, and the thick gullet is bent outward by the
withdrawal of the neck and tentacles, the needful
room is provided by the bulging out of this elastic
membrane, which recovers its place by the pressure
of the surrounding water, when the pressure of the
fluids within 1s removed.
202 ECONOMY IN NATURE.
A POPULOUS STONE.
The economy with which God works in nature has
been often noticed, and especially that phase of it
which consists in the profusion and variety of exist-
ance that can be crowded and sustained in a given
space. A plant is growing in the earth; it occupies a
certain amount of room, and appears, to speak
loosely, to fill it. But on examination we may find
other plants growing on it; its back, the angles of its
branches, its buds, its leaves, the interior of its blos-
soms, its seed-vessels—are occupied by many species
of spiders and insects, which find ample room for the
carrying on of their respective functions and the
enjoyment of their lives; not to speak of the birds,
and butterflies, and bees, and flies, that are but tem-
porary visitants, mere comers and goers. Many of
these minute animals have other creatures living on
them as parasites; the earwig that is snugly enscon-
ced in the tube of that flower is tenanted by a long
intestinal worm; yonder caterpillar so calmly gnaw-
ing out sinuous cavities in the edge of a leaf, sup-
ports within a colony of infant ichneumons; the little
wild bee that has just alighted on this blossom would
be found to carry about sundry maggots whose black
heads peep out from beneath the rings of his abdomen.
Even the very juices that circulate in the vessels of
the plant probably bear along in their course the
germs of invisible animalcules; forif we take the
leaves, or the flowers, or the stems, and make an
infusion of them, carefully covering the vessel to
A POPULOUS STONE. 203
prevent intrusion from without, we shall find in a
day or two that the water is swarming with living
creatures of various kinds, known to microscopic
observers as infusory animalcules.
But I think nowhere is this economy seen to better
advantage now nowhere here is 1t more admirable than
in the sea, especially about the rude rocks that fringe
our coast, and that we are apt to think so barren and
repulsive. The rough stony surface of the rock
between tide-marks, is quite alive with beautiful and
interesting creatures both animal and vegetable; and
as we find the profusion increase the nearer we
approach to that line whence the nutrient water never
recedes, we have a right to conclude, that it extends
to an indefinite distance below tide-limit. The tiny
pools that lie in the hollows, renewed twice every day
by the influx of the sea, are perfect nurseries of plants
and animals of the most curious forms, and of the
most interesting structure.
I will endeavour to enumerate the diverse kinds of
organic life that I have detected on a small fragment
of rock now before me. It is a bit scarcely bigger
than a penny-piece, which I detached the other day
from a little rock-pool near low-water mark on the
sea-ward side of Capstone Hill. One single polype
on it attracted my notice by its beauty; and when I
applied my chisel to the fragment, I did not suspect
that it was particularly rich in animal life; nor is it
richer than usual in the amount of animal life that it
supports, but the variety certainly struck me as
remarkable on so small a surface, when I came to
examine it.
204 SEA-WEEDS.
First of all, the surface is largely encrusted with
the cells of a Lepralia, the species of which I shall
probably better know when the development of some
of its granules that I am watching is further advan-
ced. Over these cells a yellow Sponge has spread
itself, very thin, and profusely spiculous ; and patches
of a scarlet Sponge of another kind occur. Another
portion of the surface is occupied by the rose-coloured
crust of the common Coralline, overspreading lke a
beautiful smooth lichen, but without a single shoot or
many-jointed stem as yet thrown up, to indicate its
true character.
These then may be called the ground-work, for we
have not yet got-higher than the surface. From this
spring up two or three tiny Sea-weeds. ‘That very
elegant plant, Bryopsis plumosa, is represented by
several of its fronds, of a most lovely green hue, pec-
tinated on each side like a comb, with perfect regu-
larity. ‘Then there is a little specimen of Ptilota
sericea, also a pectinated species, something like the
Bryopsis 1 delicacy, but of a brownish red colour,
and much less beautiful. Besides these, there are
growing parasitically on one of the polypes presently
to be mentioned, several very minute ovate fronds,
not more than one eighth of an inch in length, of a
rose-red hue, which are probably very young specimens
of some of the Rhodymenie.
Now let us look at the Zoophytes. Most conspi-
cuous are several of the corkscrew-funnels that first
caught my eye while undisturbed in the quiet pool,
and induced me to secure the fragment of supporting
rock,—the spiral polypidoms of Cedlularia avicularia,
ZOOPHYTES. 205
one of the most curious of our native zoophytes. The
specimens: are particularly fine ; the cells tenanted
with healthy polypes in great numbers, protruding
their crystal stars of tentacles, and covered with scores
of birds’ heads nodding to and fro their bald heads
like so many old men sleeping at church, and opening
and shutting their frightfully gaping jaws like snap-
ping turtles.
Up the stem of one of these Bird’s head Corallines
a colony of Pedicellina Belgica has entwined its
creeping clinging roots, and is displaying its clubbed
polypes with unfolded tentacles in every direction.
This is a very common species in our rock-pools,
parasitic on many sea-weeds and calcareous polypes.
The most abundant thing of all is Crista aculeata,
a delicate and pretty species, easily recognised by its
long slender spine springing from the margin of every
cell. The multitude of these spies gives a peculiar
lightness to the little shrubs in which this species
delights to grow.
Several other species are parasitic on the Crisia. I
detect the curious tiny snake-heads of Anguinaria
spatulata, entwined about its stems. A stalk of
Bowerbankia imbricata also is here, studded with
little aggregations of cells in dense clusters, set on the
slender thread-like stem at wide intervals. Anda few
of the pitcher-like cells of that singular zoophyte,
Beania mirabilis, set with hooked prickles, I find ;
in one of which [ can see the polype snugly packed,
though I cannot get him to display his beauties out-
side his door.
Besides all these, there are at least two kinds of
T
206 STARFISHES.
Hydroid polypes, both species of the family Corynide.
The one is a minute sessile Coryne, I believe unde-
scribed ; the other is either Clava multicornis or a
Hydractinia, for though two specimens occur of it
(as well as of the former) I cannot, from their youth,
determine to which genus it is to be referred.*
When I first looked over the fragment with a lens,
I was sure that I saw Hucratea chelata, with active
polypes; but as I cannot by close searching again find
it, it is possible I was mistaken.
But even at this moment I discover something new ;
for two little Balani have just opened their valve-lke
shells from amidst the yellow sponge, and are now
throwing out their curled fans of most exquisitely
fringed fingers, with precise regularity.
The minute Crustacea that hide and play among
the tangled stems of the zoophytes I will not mention,
because their presence there may be considered as only
accidental. But I cannot reckon as transient visitors
a brood of infant Brittle-stars which I find creeping
about the bases of the Cedlularia, because I perceive
that they have quite made the spot their home, and
though they have been now several days in a vessel
of water, free to leave their tiny fragment and visit
others, or to roam over the expansive bottom of the
the glass, if they will, they have no such desire ; but
* Its head is rose-coloured, and this agrees with Clava, but the
tentacles are covered with whorls of pointed tubercles, which Dr.
Johnston states is not the case in that genus. On the other hand I
cannot trace any echinated crust from which the polype springs, which
is characteristic of Hydractinia. There are about nine tentacles, which
appear to me to be set nearly in the same plane. No appearance of
ovarian capsules is to be traced. It is probably a young Clava.
GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL CARE 207
cling to the circumscribed limits of their native rock,
with as unconquerable a partiality as if they were
Swiss, and these fragments of stone were their own
dear Alps. They crawl and twine over the surface,
and round the edges; but it is with the utmost reluc-
tance, and only by the use of force and stratagem
combined, that I can get one off from the hold to
which he tenaciously clings. I am watching the
development, and I may say metamorphosis, of the
little brood with interest, and cannot yet say what
they are ; but I think they will turn out to be either
Ophiocoma rosula, or O.minuta, probably the latter.
Now is not this a very pretty list of the tenantry of
a bit of slate-rock two inches square ? And does it
not read us an instructive homily,—one of those
“sermons in stones’ that the poet speaks of,—on the
beneficent care of Him who “openeth his hand, and
satisfieth the desire of every living thing’ ? What a
family is his to be provided for day by day, and yet
every mouth filled ;—not one of these hungry polypes
going unsupplied! What a vast amount of happiness
we here get just a glimpse of! for life, the mere
exercise of vital functions in health, and in suitable
circumstances and conditions,—the circumstances and
conditions, | mean, for which the creatures themselves
are fitted—is undoubtedly enjoyment, probably of as
high a nature as the inferior animals are capable of
receiving. We need not then ask for what purpose
God has made so great a variety of creatures of no
apparent benefit to man. Is it not an end worthy of
a, Being infinitely wise and good, that He has stocked
every nook and corner of his world, even to overflow-
208 THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.
ing, with sentient existences, capable of pleasure, and
actually enjoying it to the full, hour by hour and day’
by day? It is sin alone that is the cause of suffering ;
and though as a whole the domain of man partook of
the lapse of its federal head and lord, and so “the
whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until
now, “‘by reason of him who so subjected it to
vanity, yet we may suppose that at least the inverte-
brate portions of the animal creation suffer their share
of the fall rather corporately than individually, rather
nominally, in dignity, than consciously, in pain or
want. And yet I suppose that at that glorious
“manifestation of the sons of God,” when creation
shall be more than reinstated in primal honour, and
shall be permanently established, so as no more to be
liable to lapse, in the immutability of the Manhood
of the Son of God, who is able to “bear the glory,”
even these low-born atoms of almost unseen and
unsuspected hfe, shall in some way or other, get an
augmentation of happiness, and thus take their humble
share in the blessing of the redeemed inheritance.
THE SESSILE CORYNE.
The little Coryne that I have mentioned in the
preceding enumeration, appears to differ from any of
those mentioned by Dr. Johnston. It may possibly
be the young of some recognised species, but mean-
while I shall describe it provisionally, as Coryne
sessilis. (Plate XIV, fig. 3). The polypes, about _
inch high, stand erect from the creeping stem, without
any portion of the tube being free. They are long,
THE SESSILE CORYNE. 209
slender, club-shaped, transparent, colourless except
near the extremity where the core is dark red. The
surface is much wrinkled transversely, and there is a
very distinct polygonal reticulation, as if of cells,
visible, beneath the tegument, since it is notin the
same focus as the wrinkles. The tentacles are very
numerous, (I counted forty-five on one head, and
there were probably some unseen,) shaped as in the
larger species, with which their structure agrees, with
a hyaline wrinkled neck enlarging abruptly into a
globular yellowish head ; they are arranged in about
six whorls, and stand out just as in the other species.
They are greatly smaller than those of ramosa, as is
the whole polype, but especially the tentacles, their
diameter not being more than one-fourth that of the
tentacles of C. ramosa. I see no capsules on any
head. (Fig. 1.)
Several of these polypes were standing up, not very
near together, from a crust of Lepradia (on the stone
just mentioned as chiselled from a rock-pool at Cap-
stone) close around the base of a cluster of Cellularia
avicularia. On very carefully separating one from
its root, | found that the creeping stem was very
small, not more than one-fourth the length of the
free polype ; it appeared to consist of a horny trans-
parent tube not distinguishable from the integuments
of the polype, with which it was evidently continuous.
Tf the animal is young, is the encasing tube not
formed until some advance is made to maturity ?
Another specimen, sessile on the Lepralia without
any apparent creeping stem, was much taller and
more slender, apparently by voluntary elongation,
210 THE BELGIAN PEDICELLINA.
being undisturbed. The polype was almost quite
hyaline, with the red core only near the tip. The
tentacles were still smaller than in the other, the
necks tapering evenly to the junction of the globose
heads, where they were very attenuated: the necks
were hyaline with a few distant rings. They stood
out at right angles, generally quite straight. The
only tube appeared to be a very few investing folds
of gelatinous matter lying like a loose stocking about
its foot. Fig. 2 represents this variety. After a day or
two, both specimens shrank up into a shapeless club,
with all the tentacles agglutinated together and
around the body, in a mass.
THE BELGIAN PEDICELLINA.
%
Gne of the most common of the minute zoophytes
on this part of the coast is a species of Pedicellina.
Dr. Johnston informs me that it is the P. Belgica of
Van Beneden, a species which, when the “ History of
the British Zoophytes” was published, had not been
recognised on our shores. I find it in great abund-
ance parasitical on the bases of the smaller sea-weeds
that grow at low water, and trailing over other objects
also.
The base of the animal consists of a cylindrical
stem (Plate XII. fig. 1.) about _ inch in diameter,
which creeps in an irregular twining manner over the
support, branching at intervals irregularly, the branch-
es intertwining and crossing each other, and sending
forth, at more or less remote intervals, rounded buds,
which soon elevate themselyes upon a foot-stalk.
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THE TENTACLES. S11
Both the stalk and the head now develop themselves
in length and thickness, until the stalk attains a
length of about a inch, and a thickness of about say.
The head or body of the Polype has now become
somewhat bell-shaped, more gibbous, however, at one
side than elsewhere; and this side, for distinction’s
sake I shall call the back. The edge expands into a
wide circular disk sometimes slightly reverted, around
which are set, a little within the extreme rim, four-
teen rather short cylindrical tentacles, separated from
each other by somewhat more than their own width.
They do not expand (so far as I have seen) beyond
the limits of the disk, but rising perpendicularly
from the edge, they curl over their tips in an elegant
manner towards the common centre. The sides of
these tentacles are set with delicate cilia (Fig. 2), the
waves of which pass up on one side and down on the
other. I think that the cilia are confined to the sides,
for at either edge of the tentacular circle, where the
exterior came between the eye and the light, I could
not detect the least ciliary action. By means of the
motions thus produced I saw minute, floating parti-
cles drawn within the disk, and others shot forcibly
out.
The tentacles do not appear to be capable of con- _
traction or elongation, but when expanded their in-
curved tips are continually being thrown inward, so
as to increase the curl, and again opened. ‘This
action, which is almost constantly being performed,
is alittle spasmodic jerking or grasping, very slight
in its degree. When alarmed, however, they are
drawn inward by the common contraction of the
ate THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM.
-
disk, the edges of which then close together and form
a puckered nipple, and the whole head becomes pear-
shaped, in which state the animal might be mistaken
for some large species of the stationary Rotifera.
The colour of the whole animal is pellucid white,
and viewed by reflected light, gives us no insight into
its internal structure. It is only when examined as a
transparent object that its interior is at all revealed.
Even then the intguments are but imperfectly trans-
parent; the whole animal, body, stalk, and stem, is
covered with a thick coat of gelatinous matter, which
is viscous, and in which Diatomacee, and other ex-
traneous bodies, become entangled; the whole exter-
nal surface is either granular or slightly corrugated,
and transmits the rays of ight tinged with yellowish
brown; these circumstances, combined with the over-
lying of the viscera in the globose body, render the
internal parts difficult of determination. It appears,
however, that the funnel of the disk proceeds diagon-
ally downwards, until it nearly reaches the wall of the
abdominal cavity on the ventral side. It then sud-
denly turns, and (as I think) performs several conyo-
lutions transversely across the body. At length it
merges into a capacious sac which occupies the whole
of the lower part of the cavity of the body. It appears,
however, as if the centre only of this sac were void,
for granules of the food may be observed, in almost
every individual, agglomerated into a somewhat loose
lengthened pellet, which continually revolves on its
long axis. This food-pellet becomes visible as a
slender thread near the middle of the sac, and passes
diagonally upward, increasing in size as it adyances
THE GEMMULES. 213
towards the middle of the back, where it terminates.
An outline, a little larger, is visible around it, which
I conjecture: to be the internal wall of the intestine,
within which an energetic vermicular ciliary action
goes on; the rest of this viscus is composed probably
of a thick glandular tissue, a structure not uncommon
among the fRotifera. Within the substance of this
sac, or else overlying it is a large transversely-oval
viscus, of a yellowish brown hue, punctured all over
with close-set round dots. The large intestinal sac
passes in a narrow tube, from the point where the
food-pellet terminated, forwards and upwards towards
the front, and probably opens into the funnel; for
under pressure the contents of the intestine were
forced out at the mouth, following the course of this
tube. Such is the digestive system, no gizzard or
manducatory organs being visible in any part.
By one of those fortunate accidents which some-
times occur unexpectedly, but which cannot be
commanded, I obtained some light on the generative
function of this zoophyte. Looking at one through
the microscope, I perceived seated on the front, which
Was in a semi-expanded state, a minute oval hyaline
body set with long cilia, with which it seemed to be
struggling to free itself from the contact of the parent
animal. Presently I saw another emerging, and I
then observed what had escaped my notice before,
that several more were lying in the free water around,
sluggishly waving their cilia, but not swimming. On
this I applied a slight pressure with the compres-
sorium, and presently a mass of some twenty or thirty
was protruded from the mouth, most of which mani-
214 THE GEMMULES.
fested independent action. These bodies, (germs I
may surely call them) are somewhat pear-shaped (Fig.
3) with a little tubercle at the larger end, around which
are set a few (about four or five) long cilia or sete,
twice or thrice as long as the body. ‘These are not
used for vibratile action, but as oars slowly waved
through the water, or apparently to push withal, when
the gemmule is making good its exit. When this is
effected, it proceeds only a short distance; the waving
motion then becomes more feeble, and presently
ceases. Under stronger pressure a larger mass was
forced out, consisting mostly of germs immature, in
which the cilia appeared as a broad thin band stretch-
ing out from the neck forwards, but without any
motion. I could distinctly trace the course of these
germs through the pellucid body, and found that
they proceeded from a large opaque mass, lying across
the cavity, between the buccal funnel and the large
intestinal sac; and they appeared to issue by the
same orifice as that which gave exit to the contents
of the intestine. I hence infer, that like other animals
whose adult character is to be fixed to a changeless
base, the young of this species are endowed fora brief
period with the faculty of locomotion, sufficient to
enable them to transport themselves to a site more or
less remote from the parent, where then each fixes
itself and becomes the founder of a colony.
The motions of this zoophyte are lively and ener-
getic; and hence we may infer the existence of a
well-developed system of muscles. The body is
occasionally tossed to and fro by the forcible bending
of the foot-stalk; this latter is in some degree capable
AFFINITIES OF PEDICELLINA. 215
of contraction, though not to any great extent. The
creeping stem, however, which appears to be homoge-
neous with the foot-stalks, has no power of contraction.
The stem and stalks are transparent, of a yellowish
hue, shewing a fibrous texture, or perhaps one com-
posed of irregular lengthened cells. By contraction
and flexure it is thrown into annular wrinkles, from
the appearance of which I should judge the substance
to be coriaceous. Something lke a fibrous core can
be discerned traversing its axis, which can be traced
through the slender constricted joint into the body,
whence it dilates as it passes upward. From analogy
in stalked Rotzfera, I conclude this to be a fascia of
muscles, perhaps becoming two bands in the body,
and passing upwards on opposite sides to the head ;
their office being the retractation of the tentacular disk.
The opacity of the integument precludes the sight of
any other muscles, or of any nervous cords, if such
exist. ;
The structure of this zoophyte seems to pointit out
as osculant between the Anthozoa and the Polyzoa,
though manifesting no very close affinity with the
normal genera of either. It is interesting also as
being evidently a link by which the Zoophyta are con-
nected with the fotifera, since it certainly approaches
nearer to Stephanoceros, and Floscularia than any
other Polype yet discovered.
After these observations were made, I obtained
specimens of much larger size and in great profu-
sion, entwined among the stems of a Crisia, from low-
water off the Tunnel. It was a beautiful sight to look
at the hundreds of heads all in active motion, the
216 THE CILIARY DISK.
moment after they were detached from the rock (a
piece of stone being chiselled off) and put into a
phial of clear water. The crown of arching tentacles
was much more elevated than I had yet seen it, the
tips only being incurved; and the floating atoms
were ever and anon shot forcibly from out the disk.
Some excellent views with the microscope enable me
to correct and augment my observations. ‘The ten-
tacles are nearly square in section, or slightly grooved
down the back. Their bases interiorly may be traced
a good way down the funnel. The marginal part of
the disk that surrounds and connects their bases is
like a hyaline web, marked with close-set concentric
lines or wrinkles. The lateral ciliary current of
each tentacle runs down until it meets a strongly-
marked ring of cilia, set round the funnel a little
below the origin of the tentacles, ana it was interest-
ing to see in a vertical aspect each individual current
merge into this great vortex. The walls of the fun-
nel below this circle are more thick and opaque, and
are perhaps muscular and endowed with the power of
various contraction; lke the cesophageal funnel in
Stephanoceros, &c. Two that I counted had each
fifteen tentacles.
They associate with other Polypes. In this intsance
Pedicellina, Anguinaria spatulata, and Bowerbankia
imbricata, had all entwined their creeping steems to-
gether around the Crista, which was also intermingled
with Cristdia cornuta.
When the tentacles are much extended and expan-
ded, the resemblance to some conditions of Stephan-
oceros 18 very striking, and they are every instant
THE SPINED AND SLENDER PEDICELLINA. 21%
twitched inwards at the tips, in the same manner as
those of that genus.
I find two other species of the same genus: the
one is P. echinata, much like the above in every.
respect, except that the stalk is more or less studded
with thick bristles or prickles standing out at right
angles. The other is marked by a very slender stalk,
sometimes gently swollen in the middle, and having
its base abruptly enlarged into a bottle-shaped bulb.
The tentacles nearly meet in the centre of the disk.
(Plate XII. Fig. 5). This species chiefly occurs on
the common Coralline. I have little doubt that it is
the P. gracilis of Sars; though IJ find the bulbous
base much more abruptly angular than in his figures ;
my specimens also have fifteen tentacles, whereas
twenty are assigned to the species by this eminent
Norwegian zoologist. This character, however.
depends probably upon age rather than upon species.
CHAPTER. EX.
Metamorphosis of Lepralia—Appearance of the Gemmule—
Budding of the Cell-spines—Development of the Polype—
Growth—The 'Three-headed Coryne—Singular Use of its
Disk— Beania—Coralline Light—Lime Light—Tubulipora—
Marine Viviaria—The Principle explained—Elegance of Sea-
plants—Facilities for Study—Details of Experiments—
Mode of procuring the Sea-weeds—Success—Anticipations
—A curious Coincidence—-‘Sponge-Crystals—Their elegant
Form—Immense Numbers—Mutual Entanglement—Ciliated
Sponge—lIts crystal Coronet—Powers of Restoration.
METAMORPHOSIS OF LEPRALIA.
June 11th——I detached a minute atom of a_red
colour swimming rapidly in gyrations in the water in
which were fragments of polypiferous rock. I caught
it with a tube and examined it. It was a globose, or
rather semi-elliptical body, of a soft consistence,
covered on its whole surface with strong bristly cilia,
in rapid vibration. Near the rounder end, was evi-
dently an orifice, with amorphous lips; and when the
globule was submitted to shght pressure, just sufficient
to confine it, it made efforts to get away by slightly
lengthening itself, and drawing in the sides around
this mouth, which was in a manner protruded forcibly
THE FAN TUBULIPORA. Q27
TUBULIPORA FLABELLARIS.
June 21.—At Hele, in a dark tide-pool between
overhanging rocks, I gathered a frond of Nitophyllum
laceratum, on which were several patches of a pretty
zoophyte, evidently identical with the Tubulipora
Jllabellaris of Fabricius, which though known to
inhabit the shores of Europe from Greenland to the
Mediterranean, has been, only lately recognised as a
British species by Mr. W. Thompson, who found it on
the North coast of Ireland. It consists of a great
number of long, slender, cylindrical tubes of pellucid
coral or shelly substance, set side by side and over-
lapping each other on the frond of the sea-weed, to
which they adhere for a portion of their length, and
then curve upward so as to be free at their terminal
portions. The tubes are somewhat crowded, but
diverge from each other, so as to form a resemblance
to a curling feather. The margins of the tubes are
oblique in some cases, in others quite transverse ; and
the edges are slightly expanded. The exterior of the
tube is set with many annular ridges, which are
evidently the expanded rims of the tube at various
periods of its growth ; the new shelly matter being
deposited not from the very edge, but from a ring a
little way within it, so as to leave the narrow expanded
lip projecting as a permanent ridge, in a manner com-
mon in many shells. The walls of the tubes are
sparsely studded with minute round grains, like those
of Crista ; and similar ones are found far more thickly
in the shapeless mass of shelly matter that envelopes
the bases of some of the tubes, connecting them like
a web.
228 MARINE VIVARIA.
MARINE VIVARIA.
One prominent object that I had in view in coming
to the coast was the prosecution of a cherished scheme
for the conservation of marine animals and plants in
a living state.
_ For several years past I have been paying attention
to our native Rotifera, and in the course of this study
had kept fresh water in glass vases unchanged from
year to year, yet perfectly pure and sweet and fit for
the support of animal life, by means of the aquatic
plants, such as Vallisneria, Myriophyllum, Nitella
and Chara (but particularly the former two), which
were growing in it, Not only did the Infusoria and
Rotifera breed and multiply in successive generations
in these unchanged vessels, but Hztomostraca, Plan-
arte, Naides and other Annelies, and Hydre, con-
tinued their respective races; and the young of our
river fishes were able to maintain life for some weeks
in an apparently healthy state, though (perhaps from
causes unconnected with the purity of the water) I
was not able to preserve these long.
The possibility of similar results being obtained
with sea-water had suggested itself to my mind, and
the subject of growing the marine Alge had become
a favourite musing, though my residence in London
precluded any opportunity of carrying out my project,
My notion was that as plants in a healthy state are
known to give out oxygen under the stimulus of light,
and to assimilate carbon, and animals on the other
hand consume oxygen and throw off carbonic acid,
the balance between the two might be ascertained by
THEIR ADVANTAGES. 229
experiment, and thus the great circular course of
‘nature, the mutual dependence of organic life, be
imitated on a small scale.
My ulterior object in this speculation was twofold.
First, I thought that the presence of the more delicate
sea-weeds (the Rhodosperms or red families especially ,
many of which are among the most elegant of plants
in colour and form), growing in water of crystalline
clearness in a large glass vase, would be a desirable
ornament in the parlour or drawing-room ; and _ that
the attractions of such an object would be enhanced
by the presence of the curious and often brilliant-hued
animals, such as the rarer shelled Mollusca, the grace-
ful Nudibranchs, and the numerous species of Sea-
anemones, that are so seldom seen by any one but the
professed naturalist.
But more prominent still was the anticipation that
by this plan great facilities would be afforded for the
study of marine animals, under circumstances not
widely diverse from those of nature. If the curious
forms that stand on the threshold, so to speak, of
animal life, can be kept in a healthy state, under our
eye, in vessels where they can be watched from day to
day without being disturbed, and that for a sufficiently
prolonged period to allow of the development of the
various conditions of their existence, it seemed to me
that much insight into the functions and habits of
these creatures, into their embryology, metamorphoses,
and other peculiarities, might be gained, which other-
wise would either remain in obscurity, or be revealed
only by the wayward “ fortune of the hour.”
Nor have these expectations been wholly unrealized.
x
930 LIVING SEA-WEEDS.
My experiments, though not yet entirely successful,
and needing much more attention and time to com-
plete them, have yet established the fact, that the
balance can be maintained between the plant and the
animal for a considerable period at least, without dis-
turbance of the water; while my vivaria have afforded
me the means of many interesting researches, the
details of which form the subject of these pages.
The first thing to be done was to obtain the Algew
in a growing state. As they have no proper roots,
but are in general very closely attached to the solid
rock, from which they cannot be torn without injury
by laceration, I have always used a hammer and chisel
to cut away a small portion of the rock itself, having
ready a jar of sea-water into which I dropped the
fragment with its living burden, exposing it as little
as possible to the air. The red sea-weeds I have
found most successful: the Fuct and Laminaria,
besides being unwieldy and unattractive, discharge
so copious a quantity of mucus as to thicken and
vitiate the water. The Ulve and Enteromorphe on
the other hand are apt to lose their colour, take. the
appearance of wet silver-paper, or colourless mem-
brane, and presently decay and slough from their
attachments. The species that I have found most
capable of being preserved in a living state are Chon-
drus crispus, the Delesserie, and Iridea edulis. The
Jast-named is the very best of all, and next to it is
Delesseria sanguinea, for maintaining the purity of
the water, while the colours and forms of these render
them very beautiful objects in a vase of clear water,
particularly when the light (as from a window) is
DETAILS OF EXPERIMENT. 231
transmitted through their expanded fronds. Many
of my friends, both scientific and unscientific, who
have seen my vases of growing Algee at various times
during the present year, both at Torquay and at this
place, have expressed strong admiration of the beau-
tiful and novel exhibition.
I have not as yet been able to preserve the water
to an indefinite period. Sometimes the experiment
has quite failed, the plants decaying and the animals
dying almost immediately ; but more commonly, the
_ whole have been preserved in health for several weeks.
The following are the particulars of the most success-
ful of my efforts.
On the 3rd of May I put into a deep cylindrical
glass jar (a confectioner’s show-glass) 10 inches deep
by 53 inches wide, about three pints of sea-water, and
some marine plants and animals.
On the 28th of June following, I examined the
contents of the jar as carefully as was practicable
without emptying it, or needlessly disturbing them.
It had remained uncovered on the tables in my study,
or sometimes in the window, ever since, a little water
only having once been added merely to supply the
loss by evaporation. The water was perfectly clear
and pure.
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FORM OF A SPONGE. 237
mass, sending forth from one side several tubes, which
divide or branch into others. The former portion lies
adhering to the face of the sea-weed, but most of the
tubes project from the edge of the frond. The longest
tube is about } inch in length, and = inch in greatest
diameter. The tubes terminate with plain transverse
orifices, without any thickening: in one the margin
is slightly expanded, but this is evidently accidental.
The spicule project from the edge their points in brist-
ling array, as they do from the whole surface; and if
it were an object of large size, one would say it was a
formidable affair to take hold of with ungloved hands.
I watched carefully for any trace of vortex or cur-
rent ; but the particles and floating atoms in the
vicinity of the apertures were perfectly still ; and I
could not detect the least appearance of motion in the
water. Ifthere be any circulation, as Dr. Grant has
satisfactorily shown to exist in the genus, it is pro-
bably periodical.
The accompanying figures may assist you to form
a notion of the general appearance of this sponge,
and of the peculiar structure or armature which I
have described above. Fig. 3, Plate XV., represents
the natural size of the entire mass ; Fig. 4the same
considerably magnified, attached to the surface of a
piece of the sea-weed frond; Fig. 5 represents the
terminal portion of the largest tube, much more
highly magnified, with the spicule, and the granular
surface beneath. The colour is dull pellucid white.
The characters of the species appear to identify it with
the Grantia botryoides of naturalists, a sponge said
to be rare in the south of England.
238 THE CROWNED SPONGE.
GRANTIA CILIATA.
On the same Alga I find a compound specimen of
another pretty and interesting sponge of the same
genus, Grantia ciliata. It is seated near the edge
of the frond of the sea-weed, and sends up two little
oval lobes with short necks, of which a very exact
notion may be obtained by comparing them with the
bottles in which soda-water is sold; but they are not
more than }inch in height. The oval body is bristled
over with slender simple spicule, all pointed, some
abruptly, others very gradually : they vary much in
thickness and length, some being of excessive tenu-
ity; they stand out in all directions from the sur-
face, like the quills of a porcupine, but there is a
slight tendency to point forward. Abundance of loose
granulous or floccose matter is entangled among the
spines, but this is probably accidental and uncon-
nected with the organization of the sponge. The
colour is dead-white; and this I should suppose to
be produced by the reflection of light from the thou-
sands of shining spicule, just as the whiteness of
snow is merely the light reflected from a vast number
of minute crystals of ice.
The neck of this bottle-like sponge consists of a
dense fringe of the ordinary spicule, perhaps more
slender than the average, which are set around the
orifice like a crown, pointing forwards and a little
outwards; so as to perfect the resemblance to a
bottle-neck.
I incline to think that the stream of water periodi-
ITS RESTORATIVE POWER. 239
eally projected from this orifice may be the mould, if I
may so say, upon which this coronal fringe is modelled,
or at least a means of restoring its form if acciden-
tally injured. I had a specimen at Torquay, much
larger than this, globose in form and about half an
inch in diameter. The neck of fringing spines had
been accidentally crushed and distorted; but after it
had lain for some days in a vessel of sea-water I was
agreeably surprised to find it restored to its original
regularity and beauty. I cannot detect any jet of
water from this specimen before me, but in that ob-
tained at Torquay, (unless my memory greatly fails
me,) [ distinctly and repeatedly saw it.
CHAPTER X.
Respiration and Circulation—A Transparent Ascidia—Organs of
Sight—Play of the Gills—Ciliary Waves—The Heart—Cours-
ing of the Blood-globules—Reversal of the Current—‘‘ Na-
ture,” what is it >—The Praise of God—Luminosity of the
Sea—A Charming Spectacle—Light-producing Zoophytes—
Luminosity a Vital Function—Noctiluca, a luminous Animal-
cule—Its Structure—Production of its Embryo—The Slender
Coryne—Description—Parasites.
RESPIRATION AND CIRCULATION.
To take a stolen peep into the Adyta of nature's
mysteries, to surprise, as it were, LIFE, carrying on its
more secret and recondite functions, must always afford
a peculiar pleasure to the reflecting and curious. ‘This
the microscope often allows us to do ; and when our
eyeis brought to the little dark orifice of the wonder-
shewing tube, we may fancy that we are slyly peeping
through the keyhole of Madam Nature’s door, her
laboratory door, where she is actually at work, con-
cocting and fashioning those marvellous forms which
constitute the world of living beings around us.
T have been for the last two or three hours engaged
in watching two of the most important vital functions,
respiration and circulation, under circumstances of
unusual felicity for the study. In looking over one
TRANSPARENT ASCIDIA. Dn
of my vivaria, a pan containing marine plants and
animals that have been undisturbed for several weeks,
I found, attached to a sea-weed, a tiny globule of
jelly, not bigger than one of those little spherules
wherewith homceopathy supplants the jalaps and
rhubarbs that our grandmothers believed in, and
swallowed. It is an Ascidian mollusk, one of that
tribe of humble animals that form the lnk by which
the oyster is connected with the zoophyte; and it
appears to belong to that genus that the learned
Savigny has named Clavellina. ‘Transparent as the
purest crystal, it needed only to be transferred in a
drop of its native sea-water to the stage of the micros-
cope, and the whole of its complex interior organism
was revealed. The old sage’s wish that man hada
window in his breast, that we might see into him, was
more than realised in this case: the whole surface of
the little animal was one entire window ; its body was
a crystal palace in miniature. (See Plate XV., fig. 1.)
To form a correct notion of this tiny creature,
imagine a membranous bag, about as large as a small
pin’s head, with an opening at the top and another
very similar in one side; the form neither globular
nor cubical, but intermediate between these two, and
rather flattened on two sides. One of the orifices
admits water for respiration and food; the latter
passes through a digestive system of some complexity,
and is discharged through the side aperture. The
digestive organs lie chiefly on one side, the opposite
to that which forms the principal subject of my ex-
amination: they are but dimly indicated in the accom-
panying sketch, and I shall not further notice them.
¥,
RAZ THE EYES.
The two orifices scarcely differ from each other in
form or structure ; from what I know of them in other
animals of this tribe, they are protrusile tubes of flesh,
terminating abruptly, and fringed around the interior
with short filaments or tentacles ; the exteriors of the
tubes are furnished with minute oval specks of crimson,
which are doubtless rudimentary eyes ; they look like
uncut rubies or garnets, set in the transparent colour-
less flesh, without any sockets; and probably convey
only the vague sensation of light, without definite
vision. How many there are around each aperture I
cannot say from observation, (probably eight on one
and six on the other) for I have not seen either so
far protruded as to be properly opened: each is slowly
thrust out in a puckered state for a little way, slightly
opened, then suddenly and forcibly drawn in, and
tightly constricted.
The whole animal is inclosed in a coating of loose
shapeless jelly, that appears to be thrown off from its
surface, rather than to be an organic part of it; still,
at one corner of the bottom it forms a thick short
foot-stalk, by which the creature is attached to the
sea-weed; and this foot-stalk evidently has an organic
core into which there passes a vessel from the body
of the animal.
What first strikes the eye on looking at this little
creature, and continues long to arrest the admiring
gaze, is the respiratory organ in full play. The gills
are large; they form a flattened bag, nearly of the
same shape as the animal itself, but a little smaller
every way, which hangs down like a veil on one side
of the general cavity,—the side nearest the eye as
THE PLAY OF THE GILLS. 2438
you look on the accompanying figure; the digestive
organs lying beyond and beneath it. The inner sur-
face of this transparent sac is studded with rings of a
long-oval figure, set side by side in four rows. These
rings appear to consist of a slight elevation of the
general membranous surface, so as to make little
shallow cells, the whole edges of which are fringed
with cilia, whose movements make waves that follow
each other round the course in regular succession.
In truth it is a beautiful sight to see forty or more of
these oblong rings, all set round their interior with
what look like the cogs on a watch-wheel, dark and
distinct, running round and round with an even, mo-
derately rapid, ceaseless motion. (See fig. 2). These
black running figures, so like cogs and so well defined
as they are, are merely an optical delusion; they do
not represent the cilia, but merely the waves which
the cilia make ; the cilia themselves are exceedingly
slender, and close-set hairs, as may be seen at the ends
of the ovals, where a slight alteration of position pre-
vents the waves from taking the tooth-like appearance.
Sometimes one here and there of the ovals ceases to
play, while the rest continue ; and now and then, the
whole are suddenly arrested simultaneously as if by
magic, and presently all start together again, which
has a most charming effect. But what struck me as
singular was that while in general the ciliary wave
ran in the same direction in the different ovals, there
would be one here and there, in which the course was
reversed ; and I think that the animal has the power
of choosing the direction of the waves, of setting them
going and of stopping them, individually as well as
collectively.
244 THE HEART.
I am afraid my attempt to describe these phenomena
is but partially successful: I am sure it cannot convey
to you any adequate idea of the spectacle itself. Have
you ever gazed with interest on a complicated piece
of machinery in motion, such as is common in our
large manufacturing houses? If so, I dare say you
have felt a sort of pleased bewilderment at the multi-
tude of wheels and bands, rolling and circling in
incessant play, yet with the most perfect steadiness
and regularity. Something of that sort of impression
was made on my mind by the sight of the respiratory
organ of this tiny Ascidia, coupled as it was with
another simultaneous, equally extensive system of
movements, yet quite independent, and in nowise
interfering with the former. I mean the circulation
of the blood.
At the very bottom of the interior, below the
breathing sac, there is an oblong cavity, through whose
centre there runs a long transparent vessel, formed of
a delicate membrane, of the appearance of which I
can give you a notion only by comparing it to a long
bag pointed, but not closed, at either end, and then
twisted in some unintelligible manner, so as to make
three turns. ‘This is the heart ; and within it are seen
many minute colourless globules, floating freely in a
subtle fluid; this is the nutrient juice of the body,
which we may, without much violence, designate the
blood. Now see the circulation of this fluid. The
membranous bag gives a spasmodic contraction at
one end, and drives forward the globules contained
there ; the contraction in an instant passes onward
along the three twists of the heart, (the part behind
THE BLOOD-CURRENTS. 249
expanding immediately as the action passes on) and
the globules are forcibly expelled through the narrow
but open extremity. Meanwhile, globules from around
the other end have rushed in, as soon as that part
resumed its usual width, which in turn are driven
forward by a periodic repetition of the systole and
diastole.
The globules thus periodically driven forth from
the heart now let us watch, and see what becomes of
them. They do not appear to pass into any defined
system of vessels that we may call arteries, but to find
their way through the interstices of the various organs
in the general cavity of the body.
The greater nnmber of globules pass immediately
from the heart through a vessel into the short foot-
stalk, where they accumulate in a large reservoir.
But the rest pass up along the side of the body,
which (in the aspect in which we are looking at it,
and as it is represented in the figure) is the nght. As
they proceed, (by jerks of course, impelled by the
contractions of the heart) some find their way into
the space between the breathing surfaces, but how I
can hardly say, if the breathing organ is indeed, as I
had supposed, a sac ;—they certainly do slip in be-
tween the rows of oval rings, and wind along down
between the rings in irregular courses. Of course, I
know that I am liable to mistake here, confounding,
through the transparency of the organs, those globules
which are outside the breathing sac with those that
are within it; still after the utmost care by focusing,
I think Iam sure the globules do pass asI have said ;
besides those which wind along on the outside, or
246 REVERSAL OF THE CURRENT.
between the outer surface of the sac and the interior
surface of the body; for many take this course, on
both sides of the sac.
But to return to the current which passes up the
right side: arriving at the upper angle of the body,
the stream turns off to the left abruptly, principally
passing along a fold or groove in the exterior of the
breathing sac, until it reaches the left side, down
which it passes, and along the bottom, until it arrives
at the entrance of the heart, and rushes in to fill the
vacuum produced by the expansion of its walls after
the periodic contraction. This is the perfect circle ;
but the minor streams that had forked off sideways in
the course, as those within the sac, for example, find
their way to the entrance of the heart by shorter and
more irregular courses. —
One or two things connected with this circulatory
system are worthy of special notice. The first
is that its direction is not constant but reversible.
After watching this course followed with regularity
for perhaps a hundred pulsations or so, all of a sud-
den, the heart ceased to beat, and all the elobules
rested in their circling course, that I had supposed
incessant. Oh, ho! said I,—
“‘ Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still,
Ixion rests upon his wheel ;—’’
when, after a pause of two or three seconds, the pul-
sation began again, but at the opposite end of the
heart, and proceeded with perfect regularity, just as
before, but in the opposite direction. The globules,
of course, obeyed the new impulse, entered at their
PERIODS OF THE PULSATIONS. 247
former exit, and passed out at their former entrance,
and performed the circulation in every respect the
same as before, but in the reverse direction.
Those globules that pass through the vessel into the
foot-stalk appear to accumulate there as in a reser-
voir, until the course is changed ; when they crowd
into the heart again and perform their grand tour.
Yet there is a measure of circulation here, for even
in the connecting vessel one stream ascends from the
reservoir into the body as the other (and principal
one) descends into it from the heart ; and so, vice
versa.
I have spoken of these motions as being performed
with regularity; but this term must be understood
with some qualification. The pulsations are not quite
uniform, being sometimes more languid, sometimes
more vigorous ; perhaps forty beats in a minute may
be the average; but I have counted sixty, and pre-
sently after thirty ; I have counted twenty beats in
one half-minute, and only fifteen in the next. The
period during which one course continues is equally
uncertain ; but about two minutes may be the usual
time. Sometimes the pulsation intermits for a second
or so, and then goes on in the same direction ; and
sometimes there is a curious variation in the heart’s
action,—a faint and then a strong beat, a faint and a
strong one, and so alternately for some time.
Several other points in the organization of this
animal I might notice ; as the forked muscular bands
that ramify from each aperture, the use of which is
doubtless to perform the strong retractations of those
orifices ; and_the curious knobbed or hooked processes
248 NATURE—WHAT ?
that hang down freely like so many walking-sticks
into the cavity of the body from the oral orifice, to
the number of ten at least, the nature and use of
which organs I am not aware of.
Wishing to see the course of the food into the
stomach, | mingled indigo and carmine with the
water ; but though I saw the particles of pigment
continually taken in (not, as I had expected, by the
oral aperture but by the anal), I could not trace
them beyond the immediate vicinity of the orifice ;
nor could I discern the least discoloration of the
stomach or intestines by it. Indeed I could not
detect any distinct canal or tube leading from either
aperture to the stomach. The gelatinous coat, how-
ever, which invests the whole animal, has apparently
the power of imbibing water ; for on my removing it
into clean water after two or three hours’ immersion
in the coloured, the whole of the investing coat was
tinged with faint purple, which slowly disappeared.
The admixture of pigment was probably injurious to
its health, for both circulation and respiration were
suspended, and were resumed only after some half-
hour’s immersion in the pure water.
When I spoke just now of these wonderful mechan-
isms and functions as “Nature's operations,” I used
the phrase in playfulness rather than in seriousness.
For who indeed is Nature, and what are her attri-
butes? Is not the term one in which we take refuge
from the necessity of acknowledging the God of
glory? “It has become customary,” says the greatest
of modern zoologists, to personify Nature, and to
employ the name for that of its Author, out of re-
THE WORK OF GOD. 249
spect.” J fear itis rather out of shame than out of
respect ; the potent dread of that terrific word “cant,”
I much fear has effected the substitution. If we
remember the word of Jehovah himself, “ Whoso
offereth praise glorifieth me” (Psalm 1, 23.), we shall
not think it any mark of respect to conceal his name
in speaking of his wondrous works, and to give the
honour of their formation to a fabulous and imaginary
power.
No, this little ball of animated jelly is one of the
inventions of the Almighty Son of God; of Him who
is the Brightness of God's glory, and the express
Image of his Person, without whom there was not
any thing made that was made. Its intricate ma-
chinery, all its clock-work circles and revolutions, were
originally the contrivance of his infinite wisdom, the
workmanship of his matchless skill. And they are
maintained in their beautiful order and precision, not
by any inherent force implanted in them at first, but
by his perpetual sustaining will. He, upholding all
things by the word of his power, maintains the vital
functions of this tiny globule, as truly and with as
absolute a volition as He maintains the motions of
the solar system, or they would instantly collapse into
nothing. He made ¢his also for his own glory; and
it is included in that extensive category, of which it
is declared, “For his pleasure they are, and were
ereated.”
Every word of the above description was penned,
and my drawing was made, long before I was aware
that this little animal had been already described and
250 A CHARMING SPECTACLE.
figured by Mr. Lister in the Phil. Trans. for 1884. He
assigned to it no name, but it has since been called
Perophora Listeri. Whatever points of agreement
are found between the observations of that eminent
naturalist and my own, are due to our having drawn
from a common original : and I will not cancel this
paper, since a concurrence of independent research is
valuable in all science.
LUMINOSITY OF THE SEA.
I was coming down lately by the Steamer from
Bristol to [lfracombe in lovely summer weather.
Night fell on us when approaching Lynmouth, and
from thence to Ilfracombe, the sea, unruffled by a
breeze, presented a phenomenon of no rare occurrence,
indeed, to those who are much on the water, but of
unusual splendour and beauty. It was the phospho-
rescence of the luminous animalcules; and though I
have seen the same appearance in greater profusion
and magnificence in other seas, I think I never saw it
with more delight or admiration than here. Sparkles
of brilliance were seen thickly studding the smooth
surface, when intently looked at, though a careless
observer would have overlooked them; and as the
vessel's bow sploughed up the water, and threw off the
liquid furrow on each side, brighter specks were left
adhering to the dark planks, as the water fell off, and
shone brilliantly until the next plunge washed them
away. ‘The foaming wash of the furrow itself was
turbid with milky light, in which glowed spangles of
intense brightness. But the most beautiful effect of
ILLUMINATED WAVES. Pata |
the whole, by far, and what was novel to me, was pro-
duced by the projecting paddle-boxes. Each of these
drove up from before its broad front, a little wave
continually prolonging itself, which presently curled
over outwardly with a glassy edge, and broke. It
was from this curling and breaking edge, here and
there, not in every part, that there gleamed up a
bluish light of the most vivid lustre, so intense that I
could almost read the small print of a book that I
held up over the gangway. The luminous animals
evidently ran in shoals, unequally distributed ; for
sometimes many rods would be passed, in which none
or scarcely any light was evolved, then it would appear
and continue for perhaps an equal space. The waves
formed by the summits of the swells behind the ship
continued to break, and were visible for a long way
behind, as a succession of luminous spots; and occa-
sionally one would appear in the distant darkness,
after the intermediate one had ceased, bearing no
small resemblance, as some one on board observed, to
a ship showing a light by way of signal. The scene
recalled the graphic lines of Sir Walter Scott :—
Awak’d before the rushing prow,
The mimic fires of ocean glow,
Those lightnings of the wave ;
Wild sparkles crest the broken tides,
And flashing round, the vessel’s sides
With elfish lustre lave ;
While far behind, their livid light
To the dark billows of the night
A blooming splendour gave.
Lorp oF THE IszEs, i. 21.
While on this subject I will mention the charming
Bae LIVING SELF-LIGHTED LAMPS.
spectacle presented by some of the Sertularian Zoo-
phytes, in the dark. Other naturalists, as Professor
Forbes, Mr. Hassal, and Mr. Landsborough, have
observed it before me, and it was the admiration
expressed by them at the sight that set me upon
witnessing it for myself. I hada frond of Laminaria
digitata, on whose smooth surface a populous colony
of that delicate zoophyte Laomedea geniculata had
established itself. I had put the frond into a vessel
of water as it came out of the sea, and the polypes
were now in the highest health and vigour in a large
vase in my study. After nightfall I went into the
room, in the dark, and taking a slender ‘stick struck
the frond and waved it to and fro. Instantly one and
another of the polypes lighted up, lamp after lamp
rapidly seemed to catch the flame, until in a second
or two every stalk bore several tiny but brilliant stars,
while from the regular manner in which the stalks
were disposed along the lines of the creeping stem,
as before described, (See p. 90 ante), the spectacle bore
a resemblance sufficiently striking to the illumination
of a city; or rather to the gas-jets of some figure of
a crown or V. R., adorning the house of a loyal citizen
on a gaia-night ; the more because of the momentary
extinction and relighting of the flames here and there,
and the manner in which the successive ignition ap-
peared to run rapidly from part to part.
It has been a question whether the luminosity of
these polypes is a vital function, or only the result of
death and decomposition. I agree with Mr. Hassal
in thinking it attendant, if not dependent, upon vita-
lity. The colony of ZLaomedea in the preceding
LUMINOUS ANIMALCULE. 258
experiment was still attached to its sea-weed, and
this had not been washed up on the beach, but was
growing in its native tide-pool when I plucked it ;
it had never been out of water a single minute, and
the polypes were in high health and activity both be-
fore and after the observation of their luminosity.
LUMINOUS ANIMALCULE.
Some weeks afterwards I had an opportunity of
becoming acquainted with a minute animal] to which
a great portion of the luminousness of the sea is
attributed. One of my large glass vases of sea-water,
I had observed to become suddenly luminous at night
on being tapped with the finger; the hght was in
minute but brilliant sparks, chiefly at various points
on the surface of the water, and around its edge. It
is possible, however that the vibration of the glass
produced a more powerful effect on the animals in
contact with it, than on those in the water at some
distance. After the first tap or two, the light was not
again produced, and no jarring or shaking of the ves-
sel would renew it. I determined to examine the
water carefully in the morning.
In the mean time, however, in the course of
examining some polypes from another vessel, I unin-
tentionally isolated a minute globule of jelly, which I
presently recognized as Noctiluca miliaris. RKemem-
bering that this animalcule is highly luminous, I
immediately suspected that the luminous points of
my large vase might be owing to the presence of this
same little creature. I accordingly set the jar in the
Z
254 THE NOCTILUCA.
window between my eye and the light, and was not
long in discovering, without the aid of a lens, a
goodly number of the tiny globules swimming about
in various directions. ‘They swam with an even glid-
ing motion, much resembling that of the Volvoxr
globator of our fresh water pools, but without any
revolution that I could perceive. They appeared
social, congregating into little groups, of half a dozen
or more together ; and when at rest affected the sur-
face and the side of the glass next the light. A
jar or shake of the vessel sent them down from the
surface.
It was not very easy to catch sight of them, nor to
keep them in view when seen, owing rather to their
extreme delicacy and colourless transparency than to
their minuteness. They were in fact distinctly appre-
ciable by the naked eye, for they measured from = th
to - th of an inch in diameter.
With a power of 220, each was seen to be a globose
sac of gelatinous substance, ordinarily smooth and
distended, but occasionally roughened with fine
wrinklings in the surface. At one side there is a ~
sort of infolding, exactly like that of a peach or plum
(see figs. 6 and 8, Plate XVI.) ; and this if viewed
directly sidewise appears to be a deep furrow, from
which the two rounded sides recede, with two minor
lobes between them. (See fig. 7). From the bottom
of the furrow springs a small slender proboscis of a
thickened ribbon-form, very narrow, and about as
long as two-thirds the diameter of the globe, with the
tip slightly swollen. (Fig. 11). It is frequently
twisted with one curl, but is moved sluggishly in
Pil Gosse del et hi
ITS STRUCTURE. Oe
various directions. I could not detect the least trace
of ciliary action on it, or indeed on any part of the
surface.
Within the sac, which appears to have thin walls,
there is a mass of viscera suspended from the bottom
of the furrow, and hanging down in a gradually taper-
ing cone nearly to the bottom of the interior, to which
in some specimens (not in all), the mass was tied by
a slender thread or ligament. Among the viscera
were two or three globular organs, one of which was
yellow, and appeared larger and more filled with food,
or less and more empty, in different degrees, in dif-
ferent individuals. J should have little hesitation in
pronouncing this, from its resemblance to a similar
viscus in the Polyzoa and Rotifera, to be the stomach.
The other globose viscera were colourless, but had a
turbid nucleus.
The arrangement and bulk of this mass of viscera
vary much in individuals, and in some the whole is
almost obsolete. In one or two there was an isolated
globose viscus far down in the cavity near the bottom.
As these specimens were smaller, I thought of the
male of Asplanchna, (a Rotiferous genus of which
these animals strongly reminded me,) in which the
digestive viscera are obsolete, and suggested the pos-
sibility of this isolated viscus being a sperm-sac. On
pressure, however, to the extent of bursting the viscus,
the extruded contents were granular, and I could not
trace any Spermatozoa. I believe that it was only
the stomach, got loose by the decay or absorption of
the connecting membranes, and floating freely in the
cavity. Fig. 8 is the representation of one of these-
256 THE NOCTILUCA.
From the point whence the viscera hang, a number
of vessels diverge on all sides, in the substance of the
integument. They narrow speedily, ramify, and con-
nect with each other by the branches. The distance
to which they can be traced, and their number, differ
greatly in individuals.
I endeavoured to excite the lght-producing action
under the microscope. For this purpose I isolated
two drops of water on the compressorium, the one
fresh, the other salt containing one or more Noc?t-
luce: then screwing up the glass-plate, the drops
were made to unite. I had expected that the contact
of the fresh water would kill the animal, but that a
spark would be evolved at the moment. None how-
ever appeared, though I tried the experiment repeat-
edly with different specimens. The contact seemed
to be fatal ; the gelatinous integument shrivelled and
puckered up, and the beautiful globe became shapeless
in a few seconds. I then caught two or three ina
glass tube, and blew them into a vessel of fresh water
in a dark room, but not a spark was elicited in this
case.
Aug. 138.—Examining other individuals I find some
in which there are several of the isolated vesicles,
which I had supposed above to be the stomach. That
conjecture is doubtless erroneous. They consist of
yellow clear globules, with a central well-defined
nucleus more or less developed, of a rich reddish hue.
I perceive they are not strictly isolated ; each is con-
nected with a thick arbuscule of vessels, which diverge
from its vicinity in all directions, with many branches,
many anastomosing unions, and thickened web-like
DEVELOPMENT OF A GEMMULE. 207
points of contact. Each of these globules is con-
nected with its fellows, by a long straight vessel, and
also with the mouth. They do not therefore float
freely, but are moored within the cavity, at a little
distance from the internal walls, by threads which
pass in various directions to the walls. TI incline to
think them germs, but am not certain.
This last conclusion has been just confirmed ; for
having found one with asingle vesicle, much larger
and evidently more developed than any before, I con-
tinued to watch it. I presently saw that the vesicle
was being drawn nearer to the fissure, very slowly
and gradually, but uniformly: at length it became
evident that it was about to be discharged ; and after
about two hours from the time I first observed it, it
was clear of the parent, though still sessile on the
part from which it had escaped. It was now a per-
fect sphere, about agp inch in diameter, of a granular
surface, of a horny yellow hue, containing within it a
small, well-defined, but irregular-shaped mass of dark
red substance, near the centre. Its appearance is
shown at figure 10, more magnified than the other
figures. Twelve hours produced no change in the
appearance of the excluded ovum, and the next morn-
ing, in shifting the water, I unfortunately lost it.
THE SLENDER CORYNE.
I find in a vase of old sea-water kept pure by
living sea-weed, a Coryne which appears to have a
very distinct character and habit from the others that
have fallen under my notice. It is adhering to the
258 THE SLENDER CORYNE.
cylindrical footstalk of a Rhodymenia, about which
it creeps irregularly in the form of a white thread, of
about the same thickness as a human hair, as I found
by placing both beneath the microscope together.
This thread is cylindrical and tubular, perfectly hya-
line, and without any vestige of rings or wrinkles,
but permeated by a central core apparently cellular in
texture, and hollow, within which a rather slow circu-
lation of globules, few in number and remote, is dis-
tinctly perceived. The thread is very long in pro-
portion to its thickness, and here and there starts
from the support and sends off free branches, or
rather divides; the ramifications generally forming
an acute angle, and continuing of the same thickness,
form, and structure as before. Some of the branches
send off others, some soon form the terminal head,
others run to a great length, even to ten-times the
the length of the head. This excessive length and
tenuity of the branches constitute a character very
unlike that of C. ramosa. (See Plate XVI. figs.
(5
The polype-head appears to be a clavate enlarge-
ment of the branch, no open end of an investing tube
being visible in any part of the zoophyte. ‘The head
is oblong, usually cylindrical, rounded at the end;
but sometimes considerably ventricose in the middle ;
and wherever this form occurred, I invariably found
a large bubble of air in the midst of the swollen part.
The head is transparent, slightly tinged with yellow-
ish; corrugated with coarse annulations. The core
of the stalk enters into its lower part, and soon dilates
into a semi-opaque granular mass, becoming more
ITS TENTACLES. 259
dense at the very extremity, where it quite fills the
interior. At the extreme point are fixed four tentacles
of the usual form, directed to the cardinal points,
they are long, slender, and furnished with globular
heads. The number was four, neither more nor fewer,
in every head on the zoophyte, as also in each head
of another specimen near. Near the lower part of the
polype-head, viz. at about one-third from its com-
mencement, four tentacles project in the same manner,
exactly similar to the terminal ones, but without dilat-
ed heads. I had thought, in examining a similar
phenomenon in Coryne Cerberus, that these were
tentacles from which the heads had sloughed; but
their appearance in this animal is too healthy to
allow me to maintain that opinion; and the con-
stancy of their number and position in every example
induces me to conclude them normal. Are they male
tentacles as described by M. Loven in Coryne Sarsii ?
Both these and the capitate ones are seen on close
examination to be studded with tubercles, somewhat
whorled, from which short bristles project at right
angles. (See figs. 4, 5). The inferior tentacles are
furnished with rounded extremities, somewhat globose,
but not larger than the diameter of the tentacles
themselves.
The form of the polype reminds one of a familiar
kind of turnstile, or of those presses the screw of
which carries arms loaded at their extremities with
globes of metal to increase their impetus when turned.
It seems more closely allied to C. Cerberus than to
the other species that I have met with, though differ-
ing in the ramified habit, and in the number of its
260 PARASITIC ANIMALCULES.
capitate tentacles. It is much infested with parasites :
a Vorticella grows on it; and a sort of Vibrio. The
latter is in immense numbers, forming aggregated
clusters here and there, the individuals adhering to
each other, by mutually twisting in several turns
around each other, and projecting in bristling points
in every direction. These animalcules vary in length,
some being as long as s inch, or more; with a diameter
of — inch. They are straight, equal in thickness
throughout, and marked with distinct transverse lines ;
they bend themselves about with considerable activity,
and frequently adhere to the polype by one extremity,
ot by a small portion of their length, while the
remainder projects freely.
Fig. 1. Represents the Coryne of the natural size,
which is distinctly perceptible to the naked eye
2. The same magnified.
3. The polype more highly magnified.
4, An inferior tentacle.
5. A capitate tentacle.
The species, I find, has been well figured by M.
Dujardin, in the Ann. des Sci. Nat. for 1845, by the
appellation of Stauridia; though I do not very
clearly apprehend whether he intends this for the
designation of the species. If so it must be called
Coryne stauridia.
CHAPTER XI.
Hillsborough—Meaning of its Name—Its Grandeur—lIts Flowers
—Commanding Prospects—View Westward—Inland—East-
ward—Seaward—Formation of a Beach—A Rock-slip—An-
thea—Its Tentacles retractile—Their Structure—Thread-
Capsules—A. Summer Morning Walk—Autumnal Flowers—
Langley Open—The Hangman—Curious Legend—Coast
Scenery—Lee—A Ship’s Travels —Solitude—Caves—Sponges
—The Hispid Flustra—Its Appearance and Structure—
Expansion of its Bells—-Ciliary Action—A miniature Whirl-
pool—Visit to Braunton Carn Top—Tragical Legend—
Score Valley—Squirrels—Trentistowe—White Bindweed—
Oak Hedges—Reaping—Braunton—Curious monumental
Inscription—Braunton Burrows—Sea-side Rocks—Marine
Animals—Rare Plants on the Cliffs—Snails—Botany of the
Burrows—Insects—Shells—The Feather Plumularia—lIts
Egg-Vesicles—Young Polypes—Their Development from
Planules—Structure of the Polype.
The most remarkable object in this neighbourhood
is the noble mountain-mass that forms the eastern
headland of the harbour of Ilfracombe. Its name is
now spelled and pronounced Hillsborough, but there
can be little doubt that the essential part of this word
is cognate with Hele, the village that lies at the foot
of the hill. The element “borough” or “ burrow” is
commonly found hereabouts in the names of elevated
rounded hills, especially such as are tenanted by rab-
262 HILLSBOROUGH.
bits. Thus we have Saxon’s durrow, at the entrance
to Watermouth, and Braunton Burrows; and the
word is continually used as an appellative, synonymous
with rabbit-warren.
Hillsborough is sure to catch the eye of a stranger
from nearly all points of the vicinity. From the
promenade of Capstone its gigantic form is broadly
conspicuous; its loftiness brings its summit into
view the first of the eminences that surround the town,
as you mount any of the other hills; and as you
walk down the steep and narrow street that leads to
the quay, there is the bold and picturesque mass
straight in front, filling the field of view. There is
something particularly grand and noble in its appear-
ance: the highest point is nearly 500 feet above the
sea, and from this point there descends to the water's
edge one broad ample face of cliff almost perpen-
dicular, its naked majesty unbroken from top to
bottom, except by the variations of light and shadow,
and the slight diversities of the warm brown tints
that mark its surface. It is the character of the
friable shale which is the prevalent formation here, to
form great breadths of surface, and to this I think is
owing much of that grandeur for which the coast
scenery of North Devon is so remarkable.
It is a pleasant, though somewhat toilsome exer-
cise, to climb to the summit of this hill in summer,
and enjoy the wide expanse of prospect visible thence.
I do not mean that you must climb the precipice, for
you might almost.as well essay the side of a church,
but ascend the grassy slope from the landward side,
which, though steep, is not impracticable. We go by
—_—
Ce
ITS FLOWERS. 263
the pleasant path across the Quay Fields, and just
where this leads into the dusty road, turn down a
lane for about a dozen yards, instead of going on to
Hele, clamber over a gate,—and we are on the
mountain.
It is near the end of July. The pale blue Scabious
and lilac Anautia are now in blossom; the yellow
spikes of the Agrimony, with battlemented calyx, and
the rosy flowers of the Rest-harrow, elegant in form
and beautiful in colour ; these are about the foot of
the slope. As we get up Ingher, the turf becomes
shorter and finer; the cheerful little Bird’s-foot Lotus
appears ; large patches of Thyme occur here and
there, as soft as a feather-bed, where the wild bee is
humming ; the tiny star-like flowers of the yellow
Ladies’ Bedstraw are grouped by hundreds; and not
rare is the lovely little Centaury, timidly displaying
its tufts of pink blossoms, that hardly venture to pro-
trude their pretty heads above the short turf. The
yellow Hawkweeds and Cats’-ears are flaunting here
and there, one species of which, the Mouse-ear, of a
delicate lemon-yellow tint, is both beautiful and
curious, for its leaves are studded with fine erect
hairs of great length and slenderness, and are covered
on their under surface with a close downy wool. On
the summit, two kinds of Stone-crop, that known as
distinctively English (Anglicum), and the much
rarer White (album) are growing profusely about
the clefts and weather-beaten sides of the rocks; the
latter distinguished by its large silky blossoms, with
purple anthers ; the inflated calyxes of the Bladder
Campion, so prettily marked with delicate purple
264 COMMANDING PROSPECTS.
veins, are seen on the abrupt face of the precipice
itself, and bushes of the Bramble and the Sloe with
beds of Fern fringe the very yawning edge, giving a
sense of protection and security more apparent than
real.
But though I mention these plants and flowers
first, they are not the first things that claim attention
here. He would indeed be an enthusiastic botanist
who could look at flowers, until he had somewhat
satiated his eyes with the glorious prospect around.
One knows not where to commence the admiring survey
—sea-ward, land-ward; up the coast, down the coast ;—
all is magnificent, or beautiful, or both. Let us turn
westward first; overlooking the harbour and the town
of Ilfracombe, the craft in the one, and the streets -
and terraces of the other, looking almost as in a map,
Here is Lantern Hill just beneath us, crowned with
the old chapel of St. Nicholas, the supposed patron
of mariners in the times of Papal ignorance, then
Compass Hill, and the conical Capstone with its con-
spicuous walks and its signal-staff; then come the
green slopes of the Runnacleaves, and the seven
peaks of the Torrs, and the rounded outline of
Langley Cleve, a loftier elevation than this on which
we stand: the rugged rocks, and coves of the coast
line are seen here and there, and far away on the dim
horizon lies Lundy, blue and hazy, like a sentinel
keeping his guard at the entrance of the channel.
Now for a gaze inland. Under our feet is the
village of Hele, embosomed in gardens and orchards,
and half hidden by tall and shaggy elms. A valley
winds up to the left, with a little stream running
RILLAGE POINT. 265
through its wooded bottom, of which, however, we
can scarcely catch a glimpse here. Another lovely
vale, that of Chambercombe, leads off to the right, and
then curves round parallel with the former ; the sides
of its bounding hills are covered still more luxuriantly
with woods of oak and ash, the dark shadows of which
contrast finely with the sunny fields between, cut up
by roads and cross-paths like a ground-plan of an
estate in a land-agent’s office.
We walk on a little way to the eastern brow of the
hill, which is less precipitous than the other. Hence
we look down upon extensive gardens sloping away
from our feet to the cottages on the road side. Oppo-
site us rises a broad hill-side covered with fields of
corn and potatoes. Between there is the valley, the
village-mill, the ‘‘one arch’d bridge” crossing the
brook, and the brook itself now in full view brawling
and sparkling away to the cove. The sea is breaking
on the beach in rolling waves; and the black rocks
of Rillage Point that runs out in a bristling ridge,
like a ruined wall, are frimged with a snowy line of
foam, from the beating surf, whose hollow roar falls
loud upon the ear. Overtopping the whole is the
dark outline of Great Hangman, a mountain of regu-
lar form nearly 1200 feet in height.
Once more. In another direction we gaze far
down upon the lovely face of the sea, bounded
in part by the blue line of the opposite shore run-
ning out to a dim, almost invisible, point, but for
a considerable expanse of the horizon so mingling
with the sky that the separation is with difficulty
defined.
A2
266 A LAND-SLIP.
Silent and steadfast as the vaulted sky
The boundless plain of waters seems to lie :—
Comes that low sound from breezes rustling o’er
The grass-crowned headland that conceals the shore ?
No; ’tis the earth-voice of the mighty sea,
Whispering how meek and gentle he can be !—
WoRDSWORTH.
These views are very diverse from each other. I
know not which most to admire, the wild magnificence
of the iron-bound coast, the soft luxuriance of the
fields and woods, or the busy scenes of activity and
industry, the occupations and homes of human life.
This hill affords an mstructive example of the for-
mation of a shingle-beach. About two years ago, one
winter's night, the inhabitants of the town were
affrighted by a tremendous and unaccountable noise,
and in the morning perceived that a large portion of
old Hillsborough had fallen. It had before presented
an uneven and broken slope, covered with bushes and
herbage nearly to the water; but now they saw all
this gone, and an abrupt precipice in its stead, as if a
giant had taken a rick-knife of suitable dimensions,
and had cut off a huge slice from the top to the bot-
tom. The fallen mass of debris formed a vast heap
piled against the side to nearly half the height. Up to
this time there had been no beach at the foot; the
water had been deep to the cliff, and bristled with pro-
jecting masses and points of rock.
The action of the waves and the weather soon took
down the piled heap of rubbish ; and in a very few
months the whole had assumed its present state. A
wide beach was formed by the debris settling itself
into the sea; the projecting rocks are quite covered
a
ANTHEA. 267
by it; and the fragments of the fallen mountain are
already worn into round and smooth pebbles by the
rolling surf, so that no one would think on looking at
it that it had not been a shingle-beach ever since the
deluge.
ANTHEA.
On several occasions I have touched the tentacles
of Anthea cereus with my fingers, but have never ex-
perienced any other sensation than the shght adhesion
common to the Actinie: not the least stinging. At
Hele, too, where the species is very numerous in
shallow rock-pools, a lid gathering periwinkles as-
sured me that it did not sting, and as a confirmation
of his assertion, immediately touched the tentacles of
one before me, with impunity.
Very fine specimens are common in the pools
below the Tunnel, near extreme low water. They
are of tints varying from the most silky emerald green
to plain drab; some are of very large size, fully three
inches in diameter of disk; much more in expanse of
tentacles. I perceive, what I had noticed also in
specimens kept in captivity, that when the animal is
distended and expanded freely, the tentacles are
arranged in clusters or tufts of a dozen or twenty,
which are united at their bases, somewhat like the
stock of a very branching shrub.
Ehrenberg is right in affirming that this species
has the power of retracting its tentacles. My white
specimen described in an early page of this volume,
after having been in my possession more than six weeks
268 ANTHEA.
without showing any tendency to do so, at length per-
formed this feat. On the evening of the 6th of June,
I observed it in the ordinary bell-form assumed by
Actinie when at rest, with the tentacles protruded
only as regards their tips. I immediately touched it
both on the body and the tentacles, in the hope of
inducing further contraction, by the irritation; but
the power seemed to have reached its limit, for the
animal opened under the annoyance instead of closing.
But on the next night I observed it quite contracted ;
the campanulate shape was again assumed, and the
tentacles were quite withdrawn. I have no reason to
suppose that the specimen was unhealthy; it after-
wards expanded its tentacles, and allowed them to
hang loosely about, just as before.
The finest specimens that I have seen are at Ilfra-
combe, between Capstone and Lantern Hill; there is
a group of the fine green variety in a tide-pool, all of
which expand fully six inches in diameter, with ten-
tacles four inches long.
The crimson extremity of one of the tentacles I
submitted to examination under pressure. ‘The walls,
which were very mucous, seemed almost wholly com-
posed of filferous capsules of a linear form, slightly
curved, about sap th of an inch in length. The pro-
jected thread varied much in length, from four to
twenty five times that of the capsule. Those of the
body of the tentacle did not differ from those of
the tip. |
The numerous convoluted bands with which the
body is filled, and which are considered to be ovaries,
are covered with close-set short cilia, the vibration of
A MORNING WALK. 269
which produces strong currents in the surrounding
water, and suffices to carry away the bands themselves
if they be cut off from the mass. The walls of these
tubes seem also to be mainly composed of filiferous
capsules set in a gelatinous matter; they agree ex-
actly with those of the tentacles.
A SUMMER MORNING WALK.
Who does not know the delightful feelings excited
by a walk in the early morning of a hot summer's
day? The freshness, the coolness, the thinness of
the air, the unclouded clearness of the blue sky, the
warm glow that hangs all about on the horizon, the
silvery dew that hes upon the grass and herbage like
a veil of fine mushn,—all combine to produce a buoy-
ancy and exhilaration of spirits, peculiar to the time.
I set out on a walk to Lee on such a morning about
the end of July; the sun was not yet up, but the long
vermillion clouds that stretched across the glowing
sky in the north-east, told of his presence, like the
gorgeous standard that floats over the pavilion of
a king.
The great black slugs were crawling on the wet
turf by the road-side; creatures any thing but attract-
ive in themselves, and yet, associated as they are with
the mornings and evenings of the most charming
season of the year, not only tolerated but even
welcomed.
Before I had reached the end of the long steep lane
that terminates in Langley Open, the sun was climb-
ing his steeper course, and pouring down such con-
270 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS.
centrated rays as foretold a calm burning day. The
hills were covered with a hot haze, in which their
outlines were tremulously quivering. The air was
filled with a constant buzz from the two-winged flies
that were hovering about the hedges; and the dull
brown butterflies were flitting along in their dancing
jerking flight all around.
] marked the change in the appearance of the hedge-
rows and banks produced by the progress of the season.
The spring flowers had all departed; there were no
primroses now; no germander speedwells, no violets,
no pileworts, scarcely any red campions; but purple
loosestrife and the great willow-herb sprang up in the
ditches ; the long straggling shoots of the brambles
were covered with flesh-coloured blossoms; and the
dense spikes of T’ewcrium were every where prominent.
The abundance of yellow flowers indicated the
approach of autumn; the handsome spikes of the
yellow toad-flax with its curiously spurred flowers
crowned the tall hedges, and a Potentilla was seen
here and there on the bank; but the composite
flowers that botanists term Syngenesia were chiefly
characteristic; the hawkweeds, and groundsels, and
ox-tongues, and sow-thistles.
The foliage of the hedges and all the herbage had
lost the delicacy of spring, and had grown rank, and
coarse, and sprawling ; seeds were ripening on all
sides, and ferns were putting on their under-clothing
of brown tracery.
““Not seldom did we stop to watch some tuft
Of dandelion seed or thistle’s beard,
LANGLEY OPEN. Pa i |
That skimmed the surface of the [grassy field];
Suddenly halting now,—a lifeless stand!
And starting off again with freak as sudden.”’
WorDSWORTH.
Langley Open is a wide undulating down of great
elevation: it is, indeed, with the exception of Langley
Cleve, a large rounded hill on the left, the loftiest
land in the vicinity. Hillsborough, which is nearly
500 feet above the sea level, is considerably inferior,
for the eastern horizon was-visible above its summit.
It was a lovely scene. From my feet the green down
sloped away a few hundred yards to the edge of the
precipice, mm one direction indented to form a deep,
fern-covered glen, which. appeared as if it would
afford an easy access to the beach; a deceptive
promise, however; for the adventurer, after wending
his difficult and hazardous way through the gulley,
would at length find himself at the margin of a yawn-
ing chasm, with angular, almost perpendicular, sides,
and see the inviting little beach, perfectly inaccessible,
a hundred and fifty feet below him.
From the position in which I was, however, I could
not see any portion of the shore except the termina-
tions of one or two projecting points of rock; but the
hollow sound of the surf that was breaking over those
points, and rolling in among the boulders and pebbles,
came pleasantly on the ear. The deep blue sea lay
spread out in wide expanse, studded with shipping
and bounded by the distant coast: tiny waves ruffled
up by the western breeze were speckling the surface
with those snowy masses of foam that mariners call
“white horses ;” or, to use the poet's similitude,—
Qiez LEGEND OF THE HANGMAN.
“‘Ocean’s mermaid shepherdess
Drives her white flocks afield, and warns in time
The wary fisherman ;”’
and the dark shadows of the floating clouds were
chasing each other over the sparkling plain, turning
the brilliant whiteness of the ships’ sails into a dusky
grey, as they fleeted by.
Turning, I saw the valley up which I had been
toiling; the town of Ilfracombe embosomed among
the hills, the shipping in the harbour, Hillsborough
and other bluff headlands that distinguish this part of
the coast receding in succession, until they faded into
a dim and untraceable line far up the channel towards
Bristol. But prominent among them was one conical
mass, attracting notice as well by ,its superiority of
magnitude to all the others, as by the simple majesty
of its uninterrupted outline, rising to a peak from the
land, and then descending with a similar angle to the
sea. This mountain, which is between eleven and
twelve hundred feet above the sea-level, bears the sin-
gular name of the Hangman, derived from a romantic
incident which legendary tradition has preseryed.
‘Many, many years ago, it is said, a man went out
one night and stole a sheep from the flocks, which
then, as now, grazed on the slopes of these lofty
downs. He had killed it, and was carrying it home
on his back, having tied the legs with a single rope
which he had passed over his head, and held in his
hands. As he was crossing the down he came to one
of the low stone walls which form the fences in this
part of the country, and being tired he rested his
burden for a few minutes on the top of the wall. By
LEE. 273
some accident, however, the sheep slipped over the
wall, and the wretched man, being off his guard, was
not quick enough to prevent the rope from catching
him by the throat, nor could all his efforts then suc-
ceed in relaxing the pressure. He was found in the
morning in this position quite dead, the providence
of God having ordained that thus suddenly he should
meet the felon’s doom, and that his ill-gotten booty
should itself become his executioner.
As I turned to pursue my walk, another fine
example of coast scenery lay before me. The bluff
and bleak promontory known as the Bull was there,
projecting its abruptly precipitous head far into the
blue sea, and between me and it was the little bay of
Lee, a lovely spot, whose beauty I have before record-
ed. The cliffs on the opposite side, covered with
small wood, bushes, fern, and ivy nearly to their foot,
and inclosing, as if with lofty walls, on all but the
seaward side, little quiet bathing coves with beaches
of white sand, attracted my admiration ; surmounted
as they were with a pretty villa embosomed in
orchards and surrounded by cultivated fields. A
flagstaff crowned one of the peaks that rose above
this scene, and far beyond all, on the distant
horizon, was stretched the lone blue isle of Lundy.
A steep and rocky lane wound down from my ele-
vated position to Lee, where the road runs along the
beach at the head of the cove. The tide was already
far out, and revealed the weed-covered rocks, inter-
sected by narrow channels, through which the little
stream that flows down from the valley, was pursuing
its meandering way to the sea, after spreading itself
over the sandy beach.
Q74 A SHIPS TRAVELS.
I stood beside the water-wheel of the mill at the
end of the lane, and gazed over the wide-spread area
of broken rocks that I have described on a former
occasion, before my eye met the sea. It seemed
incredible that under any circumstances of tempest
or tide, a vessel of size could be carried to the spot
where I was standing. Yet if trustworthy persons
are to be trusted, a brig called the ‘‘ Wilberforce” was
a few years ago lifted by the violence of the surf clean
over the floor of rocks, and lodged high and dry here
by the side of the mill. The crew, it is supposed, had
in despair taken to their boat previously, and were all
unhappily drowned, their precaution proving their
destruction. ‘The brig was comparatively little in-
jured; she was bought by a shipwright of Ilfracombe,
repaired and floated, and has continued ever since to
trade from the harbour.
I wended my way, over the rocks and through the
matted sea-weeds that were crisped and blackened by
their brief exposure to so burning a sun, to the coves
that I had seen from the heights. The rugged cliffs
rose perpendicularly like walls, inclosing the most
charmingly smooth beaches, whose invitations to bathe
in the clear wave I found irresistible.
On either side
The white sand sparkling to the sun ; in front
Great Ocean with its everlasting voice,
As in perpetual jubilee, proclaim’d
The wonders of the Almighty.
SourHeY.
It was indeed a glorious scene: the majesty of the
lofty precipices, their rugged sides leading the eye up
THE HONEYCOMB SEA-WORM. 279
to dark shadowy bowers among the ivy and bushes at
their summits, combined with the bold outlines of the
far-receding coast, and the expanse of the sea, to con-
vey an impression of great grandeur ; an impression.
unmarred by the presence of any object mean or little
or common-place ; for where I stood no trace of the
proximity of man, of his buildings, or his cultivation,
was visible, nothing but the works of God himself. It
was one of those times and scenes in which probably
most thinking persons have occasionally found them-—
selves, in which we are unfit for study or for action, .
but in which the whole soul seems alive and awake to
enjoyment.
THE FLESHY FLUSTRA.
When I was at the beach, a shower coming on
induced me to seek a shelter in a narrow cleft between
the perpendicular rocks; and being within I found a
shallow cavern on each side, which afforded me suffi-
cient protection from the rain-drops, though a briny
shower was dripping freely from the stony roof. Of
course I could not stand there without looking to see
if I could do anything in the way of business. From
one of the caves a narrow hole ran slanting upwards
many yards, till it opened at the top of the rock and
let the ight streaming in. The floors of both were
covered with the curious cells of the honeycomb sea-
worm (Sabella alveolata), all composed of minute
fragments of gravel imbedded in a delicate mosaic-
work, of which two broad spoon-like blades projected
around the mouth of every tube, exquisitely thin and
276 THE FLESHY FLUSTRA.
delicate in their texture. About the wet walls were
scattered irregular patches of a scarlet sponge ( Hali-
chondria sanguinea) as big as one’s hand, or bigger,
and many specimens of a smaller kind of a yellowish
colour, more projecting into teat-like eminences (H.
panicea). Many limpets were about, some of which
were very evidently stationary inhabitants, notwith-
standing their power of free locomotion, for the sur-
face of the rock on which they were seated was in
many cases eroded to the depth of an eighth of an
inch, for a space just large enough comfortably to
embrace the margin of the shell. Other such oval
depressions, from whence the limpet had either fallen
or wandered away, showed the spots where this little
shell-fish had certainly taken up his abode for a time.
On the roof of one of the caves I observed a
roundish encrusting substance of a dull olive-brown
colour, which attracted my curiosity, and induced me
to attempt its removal. I found I could easily get it
off by forcing the blade of my pocket-knife under it,
though it adhered with considerable tenacity I after-
wards observed other patches of the same substance
in the vicinity, some of which [ took away in a man-
ner less liable to injure its vitality, viz., by chiselling
off a portion of the rock itself. On examining it
at home, I cannot find that it disagrees with an
encrusting polype that is found commonly enough
investing the fronds of the serrated Fucus, and which
I presume to be the Flustra hispida or carnosa of
naturalists. It forms a rough surface, about one
twelfth of an inch in thickness, and spreading in all
directions to an indefinite breadth; some of these
0 eS ae
ITS STRUCTURE. ayy §
patches were an inch and a half in width. The micro-
scope reveals that in this substance, which is gelatinous,
and of a consistence somewhat between flesh and car-
tilage, are imbedded numerous oblong cells, set as
close to each other as they will lie, with the orifices
slanting outward to the surface, and so arranged as
that each opening shall be in a line between the two
that are just behind it; in other words, disposed 7
guincunx. The upper and free portion of each cell
is surrounded by short spines standing up and diverg-
ing a little, their number varying from one or two to
five or six. Between them is the opening of the cell,
a transverse slit, or pair of lips capable of separating
and of allowing the integuments to be protruded by
evolution ; the usual mode of expansion among the
Polyzoan polypes. You would fancy it was the finger
of a fairy glove, slowly turning inside out; the mem-
branous tube lengthening all the while upwards from
the midst of the spines, and unfolding with more and
more rapidity, until at length a bundle of fine threads
appear, and in a moment expand on all sides into a
most lovely bell of thirty tentacles. Meanwhile
another and another is protruding in lke manner,
and presently the uncouth skin that looked like a
piece of rough leather, 1s adorned every where with
these beauteous bells as thick as they can stand.
They appear as if they were spun out of glass thread,
so crystalline is their substance; and the double curve
of their outline is peculiarly elegant. To add to their
beauty, every filamentous tentacle is furnished with a
double series of minute cilia, the rapid play of which
is perpetually passing up one side from the base to
B 2
278 A LIVING WHIRLPOOL.
the tip, and down the other in ceaseless waves, an
appearance which no familiarity enables one to look
on without admiration and delight. Every moment
too, one and another of the tentacles is thrown inward
with a sudden jerk towards the centre, bending over
the head, and then gracefully recovers its place. This
action, which seems odd and unaccountable at first, is
an instinctive effort to secure food, the great object of
life, the end for which the protrusion of the polype, the
bell-like expansion of its tentacles, and the unceasing
play of their cilia are alike ordained. In order to
make this action intelligible it is necessary to premise
that a stationary polype, being unable to seek its food,
must be provided with means to bring it within reach:
the cilia accomplish this; they create an impetuous
current in a certain definite direction, and form a
vortex in the surrounding water, whose effects are felt
to an incredible distance. Any minute floating animal-
cule near is drawn into this whirlpool, the centre of
which is the bottom of the polype’s bell; once within
the circle; it is whirled round and round, descending
at each gyration till at length it is within the fatal
circle; the glassy tentacles encompass it with a wall
on every side, and it still whirls round with ever
increasing velocity in the giddy dance, and at length
is sucked into the yawning abyss at the bottom, the
gaping throat, which expands with a treacherous
embrace as the helpless atom enters, and then closes
over it with a strong muscular contraction, forcing it
down into the stomach, no more to emerge alive.
But if, in performing the gyration within the bell,
the floating atom should be driven too near the
A VISIT TO BRAUNTON. 279
margin, it might possibly escape through the inter-
stices of the tentacles, for they do not stand in actual
contact. To prevent the contingency, the cilia of the
tentacles are endowed with an exquisite sensibility ;
and if an object but touch the tip of one of these
most minute hairs, the irritability of the tentacle is
excited, and it immediately moves inward with that
sudden jerk, which throws the poor animalcule right
back into the very whirl of the vortex.
BRAUNTON BURROWS.
The next day I set out to visit Braunton, a place
whose origin is said to date as far back as the third
century. The road, a little way from Ilfracombe, les
between the peak called Carn Top on the right, and
the lovely valley of Score on the left. Both of these
were beautiful. The conical hill, with its groves of
oak, and its top sheeted with furze, is a striking object,
and always reminds me, from something in its form
and general appearance, of the representations that I
have seen of Mount Tabor. From its lofty summit a
wide and varied prospect is commanded; it is, how-
ever, precipitous and difficult to climb. There is
another reason why its romantic height is seldom
sealed ; it has the reputation of being haunted. Some
seventy years ago, a tragical deed of violence was
committed here. A Jew pedlar, travelling with a
richer pack than pedlars usually carry at the present
day, was murdered on this lonely hill. The head and
a part of the body of the unfortunate man were dis-
280 SCORE VALLEY.
covered on the very summit of the hill by an inquisi-
tive dog; the rest of the mutilated remains were
afterwards found wrapt in a woollen apron, and con-
cealed in a brake on the hill-side. ‘The peasantry of
the neighbourhood believe with an undoubting faith,
that the ghastly head of the murdered Jew is still to
be seen, in the gloaming, among the bushes of Carn
Top.
On the opposite side of the road Score presented an
appearance still more attractive. It is one of the
loveliest vales in the vicinity. A flourishing farm,
with its cultivated fields of varied hues, its animals,
its agricultural operations, its out-buildings, and other
appurtenances, occupies the bottom, through which
flows a clear little stream. The sloping sides of the
hills, projecting irregularly m bold masses into the
valley, are well wooded; a feature which greatly con-
tributes to the beauty of the scene. A pair of
squirrels, with erected feathery tails, scampered across
the field as we passed, and took refuge in the shelter
of these woods.
Farther on Trentistowe displayed a similar combi- ~
nation of smiling fields and dark woods. The blue
blossoms of the sheep’s-bit studded the banks, and
there was a wall covered with the Convolvulus arvensis,
in which the white flowers were so thick, that it
looked as if a pall of green velvet had been thrown
over it, studded with silver stars.
We pass West Down, a pretty village on a hill to
the left, and come to Buddicombe Barton, where the
rounded hills are covered with coppice of small oak ;
out the trees become finer as we approach the bottom.
iL
an sa
BRAUNTON. 281
The hedges hereabout are composed of oak and hazel,
and the nuts, which were very plentiful this season,
hung enveloped in their green coats, in inviting
clusters.
The country around Braunton is so fertile that it
is frequently called the Goshen of Devon. A great
deal of corn is cultivated, and it was more advanced
to maturity than any that I had seen elsewhere.
Reaping had just commenced, and the fields were
lively with the voices of the cheerful husbandmen,
gathering in the gifts which a bounteous God had so
richly provided. ‘Thou crownest the year with thy
goodness, and thy paths drop fatness: they drop
upon the pastures of the wilderness, and the little
hills rejoice on every side: the pastures are clothed
with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with
corn: they shout for joy, they also sing.”
Braunton possesses little to attract notice, except
the ancient church, which I did not enter. It is said
to contain some curious carvings in good preser-
vation; one of these, in a pannel of the roof, repre-
sents the singular subject of a sow with a litter of
pigs; in allusion to the ridiculous legend, that St.
Branock, its founder was directed by a dream to
build a church on the first spot on which he might
find a sow and pigs.
I found in the church-yard a monumental stone,
elaborately carved, and inscribed with the following
epitaph; which I copy for its curiosity, and not
from any sympathy with the doctrine inculcated
in it, of the excellence of celibacy, nor with the per-
version of scripture which it contains.
282 CURIOUS EPITAPH.
Here lieth interred Mrs.
Deborah Keene late owner
of the Mannor of Braunton
Arundell in this parish ; shee
Was bapt’d Febr’ the 24th 1627,
Lived unmarried and was bur,d
Decem. the 31. 1694.
Virginity was had in estimation
And wont to be observed wth veneration
Above tis still so, single life is led
In Heav’n none marry nor are married
But live Angelick lives, & virgins Crownd
All wth their coronets the Lamb surround
This maiden landlady has one obtaind
Weh tho much sought in marriage still rettain,d
And now the inheritance undefild obtain,d.
Heredes posuere.
A tall and ancient elm tree in the centre of the
street, where four ways meet, indicated the spot at which
I turned off for the sea-side, the immediate object of
my ramble. I found the botanical character of the
neighbourhood very different from that of Ilfracombe.
The beautiful flowers of the wild succory, large and
blue, were so abundant along the road-sides between
Braunton and Santon, as to be quite characteristic.
The Knautia, and different species of Centaurea,
particularly fine, were growing on the banks; and
from the crevices of a wall near Santon I noticed that
BRAUNTON BURROWS. 283
tufts of the wood horse-tail were springing in con-
siderable numbers.
Between Santon and the sea is an extensive tract of
ground called Braunton Burrows, consisting of more
than a hundred acres of sand-hills. It seems to have
‘been at one time a wooded district ; for a peasant, ex-
cavating the sand about a century ago, uncovered
the top of a tree, which proved to be thirty feet in
height. The origin of the change is doubtless to be
found in the exposed position of the district, and in
the character of the adjacent shore. The latter is a
smooth beach of fine white sand, several miles in
length, and of great breadth, especially when the tide
recedes ; the westerly winds, blowing full upon the
shore, have in the course of ages drifted the fine sand
upon the land, to such an extent as to cover what
was once a forest, and reduce it to its present deso-
late condition.
These Burrows, so called because they are perfo-
rated by the holes of myraids of rabbits, present
many interesting plants to the botanist, some of which
are of great rarity. The round-headed club-rush
(Scirpus holoschenus) one of the most uncommon
of British plants, is found here.
Before I examined the sands, however, I sought
the rocks towards Croyde Bay and Baggy Point; for
it was nearly low water and spring tide, and I wished
to see what this locality would afford of novelty in the
littoral animals, which were the chief object of interest
tome. ‘The sands terminate at this extremity in a
belt of ridgy shale, occupying the space between the
sea and low cliffs of a yellow sandstone, disposed in
284 RARE PLANTS.
thin horizontal strata, and covered at the top with a
layer of poor soil, on which barley was growing.
At the edge of the rocks, near low water mark, the
points and projections of the shale were covered
with the curious honey-combed tubes of Sabedla
alveolata ; a covering which gave to the rocks an
appearance of rounded masses, singularly suggestive
of the brainstones of tropical seas. Pretty tide-pools
and deep inlets occurred between the rocks, with
sandy bottoms; their sides densely fringed with Ser-
tularian zoophytes and Polyzoa, sponges and various
sea-weeds. Actinie of the species mesembryanthemum,
crassicornis, and gemmacea, I observed; the last-
named more than usually fine: the common shore
shells, whelks and purples, tops and periwinkles, were
crawling about in profusion. One of these crea-
tures I shall return to presently.
I climbed up the sandy cliffs. The great sea-stock
(Matthiola sinuata), a rare plant, was numerous on
these cliffs, now displaying its purple flowers, I was
struck with the curious large yellow glands on the
leaves and pods. The samphire in dark green tufts,
the pretty sea lavender, and the common thrift were
likewise clothing the cliffs; and on the top, between
the barley and the very edge, was a narrow belt of
wild plants, which I had scarcely time to look at
before a peasant came along and cut them all down
with his merciless scythe.
There was the rest-harrow, the little centaury, both
beautiful; the fragrant yellow-bedstraw; the woad,
or wild mignonette; the brilliant azure flowers of
the viper’s bugloss: and the golden heads of the
BOTANY OF THE BURROWS. 285
ragwort. The large purple musk-thistle was attracting
in considerable numbers the pretty burnet hawkmoths,
which were flying about and sucking the flowers ;
and the herbage generally was crowded with two litle
banded snails, proper to the sea-shore, the cone-snail
(Bulimus acutus), and the navel-snail (Helix vir-
gata). The cliff in one place, rather less precipitous
than usual, was entirely faced with honeysuckle from
the top to the bottom.
As I returned, [ spent ah hour in examining the
botany of the Burrows; though it would require days
to go over the whole ground, even cursorily. The
privet grows on the sand-hills in large thickets of
beautiful glossy green foliage, thick and dense; the
stems lean away from the sea, and the surface of the
thickets is as smoothly rounded by the winds as if
cut by the shears of a gardener. Near the sea was
the small bugloss (Lycopsis arvensis), with blossoms
like those of a forget-me-not growing on a rough
sprawling prickly herb. I found the rare musky
stork’s bill, a plant with little pretension to beauty,
nor does its rank odour please me, though it is said
by Sir William Hooker to be cultivated in gardens
for its scent. The viper’s bugloss was again numer-
ous, and the contents of its nectariums were evidently
attractive to the bees of different species, which were
thronging around the spikes, half-burying themselves
in the blossoms, with a shrill deprecatory hum. ‘I'wo
species of spurge, Huphorbia peplus, and the much
finer and more uncommon Lf. Portlandica, occurred.
That singular plant, the prickly saltwort, was found
near the sea, and farther inland the fuller’s teasels
286 INSECTS AND SHELLS.
which I had seen also on the road. A few tufts of
the stinking iris, so common in South Devon, but
scarce almost everywhere else, were growing near the
sea, but not in flower; and the more elegant yellow
iris was abundant in a ditch that bounds the Burrows
interiorly, with other common hedge-plants.
The sand of the hills was beaten quite hard on the
seaward side by the force of the drift; but inwardly
it was soft and loose: great tracts were covered with
a slender rush of a glaucous hue, but as I saw none
in flower I do not know the species. The ragwort
also covers extensive areas. Towards the interior
side I passed through a large tract of the brake-fern,
with an under-growth of rest-harrow, and afew plants
of the yellow mountain violet in blossom. These I
think were pretty nearly all the plants that fell under
my observation, except such as were common every-
where. Of animal life I did not notice much. Rab-
bits indeed were numerous, popping out of their holes
at every turn, gazing at the intruder for an instant,
and then jumping away with elevated rump and tail.
Two insects, an Asilus and a Cicindela, were taking
short impatient flights over the sand; singularly alike
in manners, though of widely different orders; the
one a two-winged fly, the other a beetle. On the
sand and beneath its surface, were thousands of shells
of the common garden-snail; the heat and the dry-
ness had, as it were, embalmed them, and _ they
appeared in the finest preservation. One might have
been tempted to think, but for the familiar form and
pattern of the marking, that it was some foreign
species of superior beauty, for the dark colours were
THE FEATHER PLUMULARIA. 287
changed to a fine chestnut-red, while the lighter parts
had become pure ivory-white.
THE FEATHER PLUMULARIA.
A tuft of weed that I had pulled off from the side
of one of the rock-pools, and brought home screw-
ed up in a bit of paper, was almost covered with the
elegant plumes of Plumularia pinnata. I put it into
sea-water as soon as I arrived at home, after it had
been out of water about eight hours, carried within
my hat. When I came to examine it, many of the
Polypes appeared alive, though contracted. Many of
the lower stalks were nearly denuded of branches,
except at their tips, but were densely crowded for the
most of their length, with the ovigerous vesicles.
(Plate XVII, fig. 4.) These are placed ina single
series, on the upper side of the arching stems, as
thickly as they can stand, about twenty-five on each.
By single series I mean only that they are all seated
on one side of the stem, and all point the same way,
(with an occasional exception); for they are two,
three, or even four abreast. Their substance is hya-
line, but the contents are opaque and flesh-coloured.
Their shape is sub-oval, larger at the tip, but the
sides are fluted so as to form about six rounded
angles and as many furrows. Near the tip several
divergent tubercles or blunt spines are given off.
Fig. 5 represents a lateral view of one; Fig. 6 a
vertical, from a very good view: the opaque ova in
the middle.
The tuft alluded to I put into a glass vessel made
288 THE FEATHER PLUMULARIA.
7
of the chimney of an ordinary lamp, with the bottom
closed by a plate of glass: this was about half-full of
sea-water. In three or four days, examining curso-
rily with a lens, I was surprised to see the bottom
crowded with young polypes growing erect from every
part. They were there by hundreds; I detached a
few for more particular examination. Hach consisted
of an irregular dilated glassy plate, adhering to the
bottom: from some point of which sprang up erect a
slender tube, with one or two joints, and terminating
in a cell of the same form as those above described.
The medullary core permeated the tube, and was
developed into a perfectly-formed polype inhabiting the
cell, and freely expanding from it. The tube, the cell,
and the polype, were of the same dimensions as in the
adult. Some of the cells already shewed, in the form
of a tubercle budding from their bases, the com-
mencement of a new joint of the lengthening poly-
pidom. (Fig. 13.)
Along with these, on the floor of the glass-vessel,
were many minute animalcules of an opaque white
hue, somewhat planaria-like, which crawled slowly
and irregularly, protruding the anterior portion of
the body in a blunt point, but often contracting the
whole outline into a sub-globose form. (Figs. 7, 8,
and 9). These worm-like animalcules I found to be
the primal form of the young polype, and though I
have not been able to trace the metamorphosis
through every stage of its development in the same
individual, the facts I have observed leave it indu-
bitable.
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GEMMULE OF LEPRALIA. 219
and repeatedly. Presently on the restraint being
continued, the globule threw out from different parts
of its periphery, long lancet-like flexible pointed
bristles twice as long as the cilia, with which it
pushed here and there. These lancets I perceived
were ordinarily bent at an acute angle near their base,
so as to lie flat on the body unperceived ; and I think
there were many of them, for I fancied I saw the
minute basal parts of many that were so concealed.
Those that were exposed were ever and anon suddenly
bent up again and so concealed, and again protruded,
After examining it awhile, I carefully put it without
injury into a glass of sea-water alone. Its diameter
was about = th inch (See Plate XIII. Fig. 1).
I afterwards saw another in the original vessel, and
both this and the former had the habit of coming
into contact with the side of the vessel, and continuing
in one spot for a considerable while, (half an hour or
more) not moving a hair's breadth from the place, and
yet evidently not adhering, because gyrating uniformly
all the time by the ciliary action. One of these I lost,
and the one that I isolated got into a corner of the
cell, and decayed. But carefully looking at the origi-
nal vessel, I found some half a dozen scattered over
the sides, but in a more advanced condition. ‘These
were all firmly adhering to the glass, and that so
inseparably that the most careful touch of a pin’s
point to detach one, tore it into a shapeless mass of
broken flesh. The youngest of these had taken the
form of a flattened oval, or long hexagon, with one
end more pointed than the other, in which the redness
was curdling and separating into masses. The others
220 BUDDING CELL-SPINES.
showed eight points budding from the more acute
end; and in one the most advanced, these were already
produced into eight slender spines, set around the
end like the teeth of a comb, and slightly divergent.
In this the the general hue was a pale pellucid flesh
colour; and an opaque band of deep red was
arranged in a horse-shoe form, around the end oppo-
site the spines. (See fig. 2).
During the next day little change took place except
the lengthening of the spines; but by the following
evening, forty-eight hours after I had observed it in
the state just described (fig. 2) it had made importan;,
advances. The spines, without increasing in thick-
ness, had shot out, until the middle and next pair were
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OF THE POLYPE-TUBE. 317
slender branch, which presently united again with the
main core. The total length was now —. inch, of
which the tube was = inch, the diameter of the latter,
just below the joint, being about _ inch. I could
not discover, with the closest watching, any. circu-
lation or other motion among the granules of the
medulla. No indication of sensitiveness was given,
though an Huplotes with its bristly feet was running
rapidly to and fro about the tube, and occasionally
crossing the tip.
The next morning, Aug. 20th, I could perceive no
increase over the condition of twelve hours before ;
but shght changes in the form of the medulla were
taking place, that shewed life was active. Throughout
this day I perceived the extremity slowly lengthening,
not quite uniformly, but pushing out a portion in a
little tumour, the depressions around which would be
presently filled up, and the surface would become
smooth and round again; then in a little while,
another swelling would appear, which would again
be obliterated, and thus the increase went on. The
clear opening in the granular core also lengthened,
and another formed above it, the two at length
merging into one, thus dividing the medulla into two
lateral columns ; sometimes a very delicate film was
partially sketched across the interspace, which was
gradually reduced to a thread as of viscid substance,
and then obliterated.
On the morning of the 21st, the budding portion
exterior to the joint was equal in length to that
portion below it. (See fig. 7). The young portion
appears to be very soft and flexible, for on my incau-
BS INCREASE OF THE TUBE.
tiously pouring off the water to change it, the whole
part outside the joint being deprived of the support
of the dense fluid, fell down by its own weight to a
right angle with the other part, and so remained bent,
ever after the water was repoured in, until I carefully
lifted it with the point of a pin to its original position
which it was then able to retain. This morning I
first perceived the creeping root, in the form of two
slender cylindrical shoots springing from one side of
the basal bulb.
About the middle of this day the separation of the
medulla extended to within a short distance of the
tip; this pait was quite filled with it in a very dense
condition, and from it the medulla descended in two
columns, separated from the walls of the tube, for
some distance downward.
23rd.—The tube increases in length, but not in
diameter, (See fig. 8). the division of the medulla
into two slender lateral columns is complete, except
in the budding tip. The two rootlets have grown a
little, and one of them has sent forth an irregular
lateral plate of colourless shelly substance.
Increase proceeded no further than this point;
though it was manifestly alive for a day or two longer,
during which the condensation of the granular pulp
still went on;—but on the 26th the multitude of
active Infusoria swarming around the tube warned me
(though none of them seemed to have as yet attacked
it, and though no change in its appearance could yet
be detected) that death had ensued. It is remarkable
how immediately these minute creatures appear to
have notice of the decay of any animal matter in
VALUE OF OBSERVATIONS. 319
water, both fresh and salt, and how rapid is their
multiplication in such circumstances. Some of these
were of the genus Huplotes, a Jarge and a small
species; but the swarming multitudes were of sim-
pler structure, more lke the family Monadina of
Ehrenberg.
The next day I found the indication but too true ;
decomposition was going on. in the granular pulp,
which was becoming undefined in outline; and had
retired from the shelly tip of the tube. |
The minute details of such observations as these,
especially when prematurely terminated, some of my
readers may possibly think needless, and therefore
worthless: but the phenomena connected with the
reproduction of the Zoophytes, are among the most
important of those which are now receiving the atten-
tion of naturalists. And it is only by carefully
watching and accurately recording such phenomena,
in every species, as they may occur, that we may
hope to establish a sure basis for philosophic genera-
lization. Isolated facts are better than none.
CHAPTER «XTi
Capstone Spout-Holes—Purple Hue of low Rocks—Tadpole of a
Mollusk—Its Habits— Visit to Barricane—A Beach of Shells—
Rock-pools—Their Contents—Antiopa—Its Spawn—Hatch-
ing of the Embryos—Immense Number in one Brood—The
Torrs—Bloody Field—Flowers—View from the Cliff—Torr
Point—Rocky Staircase—White Pebble Bay—Tide-pools—
Maidenhair Fern—The Precipice—A curious Medusoid—
Medusa Fishing—Mode of Operation—Difficulties—Thau-
mantias pilosella—Its Luminosity—Description of its Struc-
ture—The Umbrella—The Sub-umbrella—The Peduncle—
The Radiating Vessels—The Ovaries—The Tentacles—Pig-
ment-cells—Eyes.
CAPSTONE SPOUT-HOLES.
At the most precipitous part of the promenade
round the Capstone, the N. W. corner, the rock
is broken into angular buttresses and projections
of more than usual massiveness. You look down
over the low parapet upon an area of flattish rock of
considerable size, raised but a little above low-water
mark. By taking a round, you may scramble down
over the ledges to this part, and admire the wild
grandeur of the scene. On two sides is the sea, and
on the other two sides the precipice forming an angle.
That on the south side rises perpendicularly like a
THE SPOUT-HOLES. o2l
wall; and its base is separated from the area where
you stand, by a long but narrow fissure, through
which the sea rushes and recedes with every wave.
In the shadow of this great wall of rock there are
several round deep basins, always full of water,
fringed with the finer sorts of sea-weeds, and empur-
pled all round their interior with the encrusting coral-
lines. If you go down at extreme ebb, in a low
spring-tide, you will see the whole of the surface of
rock, that is covered in ordinary tides, but now
exposed, tinged with the same reddish purple hue,
very pleasing to the eye; a colour derived in part
from the number of red and purple sea-weeds that
flourish at this level, but principally from the com-
mon coralline, not only in its free tufted state,
but also, and chiefly, in its form of a shelly crust,
that spreads like a lichen upon the surface of the
rock.
At the extremity of the rocky wall, there are two
small holes in a ledge, which communicate with the
sea by funnel-shaped orifices. Through these the
sea spouts in an interesting manner. ‘The wave
rushes in under the ledge with its hollow roar, and
dashes up forcibly beneath it. At the same instant
there issues from the first hole, which is only a nar-
row slit, a powerful jet of steam-like vapour, resem-
bling the rush from the waste-pipe of an engine.
This is the pioneer: the next instant a cloud of water
and foam shoots upward and outward from the
second hole with terrific force, and is thrown to a
distance of twenty or thirty feet. The regularity of
the succession, the suddenness of the outburst of
322 MOLLUSK TADPOLE.
white foam from the dark purple rock, and the rush-
ing sound of the explosion, all add to the effect.
Lhe ragged rock-pools that le in the deep shadow
of the precipice on this area are tenanted with many
fine kinds of alye, zoophytes, crustacea and meduse.
In one of these I took with a ring-net about the end
of August, when fishing for meduse, what seems from
its resemblance to published figures to be the tadpole
of Amaroucium proliferum, one of the aggregated
Tunicata. Its resemblance to the tadpole of a frog
is curiously close, though its total length, including
the tail, is not more than ~ th of an inch. It consists
of an oblong oval body of a pellucid yellow tinge,
with a central nucleus of rich vermillion, deepest in
the centre, which sends off some indistinct branching
vessels towards the front part, and is continued pos-
teriorly all through the tail, nearly to its extremity.
The activity of this tiny creature is remarkable ;
its motions are like those of a fish, executed by the
vibration of the long flat tail from side to side. By
this means it scuttles along through the water with
great rapidity, in a tremulous manner. Its beautiful
colour makes it conspicuous in a glass of clear water,
notwithstanding its minuteness ; it looks like a bril-
liant little ruby. Yet itis as evanescent as beautiful ;
a very brief confinement puts a period to its existence.
BARRICANE.
A few weeks after my former disappointment, I
again set out for Barricane. It is one of the places
in this neighbourhood invariably mentioned as nota-
BARRICANE BEACH. 323
bilia, which ‘every visitor to the town must see
without fail. Its peculiarity is, that it has a beach
entirely composed of shells, some of which are rare,
or at least are not found anywhere else in this vicinity.
The scenery around is also varied and beautiful, and
would of itself present sufficient attractions to reward
a visit. It lies about half a mile below Morte, at the
foot of the cliffs of the promontory, and at one end
of that long incurved shore, known as Woollacombe
Sands.
From the grassy slope at the top of the cliffs a
narrow footpath leads steeply down to an area of what
seems to be small pebbles; but which, on examina-
tion, prove to be shells, of many kinds. Most of
these, having been washed up by the tides, are broken
into fragments ; but a good number are found in toler-
able integrity. Groups of women and girls from the
neighbouring hamlets may always be seen, during the
summer months, raking with their fingers among the
fragments, for unbroken specimens; collections of
which they offer for sale to visitors.
Among the shells of which the beach is composed,
there were some which were interesting to me. Be-
sides two or three little kinds of whelk, and the
common meérex and purpura, which are everywhere
abundant, and the beautiful ttle cowry, which can-
not be considered rare, there is the elegant wentle-trap
(Scalaria communis), the elephants tusk or horn-
shell (Dentalium entalis), the cylindrical dipper
( Bulla cylindracea), called by the local collectors
“maggot, and the beaded Nerite ( Natica monili-
Jera), a large and beautiful shell, to which the
324 BARRICANE POOLS.
women have given the euphonious appellation of
“guggy.-
I wished to procure some of these species in a liv-
ing state, and hoped that I might be able to find them
about the rocks at extreme low water, as it was now
spring-tide. Therefore, leaving the shell-collectors,
I strolled down the long narrow inlet, of which the
shell-beach was the head, towards the tide-pools at
the water's edge. It was a long way down the cove,
which resembles a narrow lane, bounded by high walls
of sharp and rugged rock; and as I walked down, I
perceived that the accumulated shells were found only
at high water mark; below this there was nothing but
soft yellow sand to the edge of the sea.
The black and rough bounding rocks, however, in-
closed in their hollows many pools, some of which
were of large dimensions. Those near the water's
edge were generally deep, narrow, wall-sided, and
dark; all of which qualities made them excellent ex-
ploring ground for a naturalist. Their steepness and
depth rendering them difficult of examination from
without, I stripped and jumped in, the weather being
warm, and worked away with my hammer and chisel,
as Jong as [ dared in water breast-high.
I could find not a single individual of any of the
rarer species of shells alive; but other objects oc-
curred, which were not devoid of scientific interest.
Among other sea-weeds there were two growing in this
deep pool, far under water, which I had not before
met with. One was Cladostephus verticillatus, con-
sisting of stalks much branched, no thicker than
threads, but set round at short intervals with close
THE CRESTED ANTIOPA. 325
whorls of minute, olive-coloured hairs. The other
was a rare species, though sufficiently abundant here;
Taonia atomaria, resembling a thin yellowish leaf,
split into several divisions, and cut to somewhat of
the shape of a fan. The whole leaf is crossed by
many dark brown lines, which on being magnified are
seen to be composed of dots, clustered together in
this manner. These are the spores, or seeds of the
plant.
Among the animals was a creature of exquisite
beauty, which I now saw for the first time. It was
the Crested Antiopa, one of the naked-gilled Mollusca,
closely allied to the Holides, some of which formed the
subjects of observation in an earlier part of this volume.
The breathing organs are very numerous; they con-
sist of oval bags, delicately pellucid, arranged all
round the sides and front of the animal, and have an
extremely elegant appearance. ach one has a brown
line running through its transparent substance, and is
tipped with silver-white. The general colour of the
animal is pellucid-grey, with spots and lines of opaque
white, that have the lustre of silver. It is about an
inch in length.
This beautiful little animal I brought carefully
home, and placed in one of my large glass vases of sea
water, kept in a fit state for the support of animal life
by growing sea-weeds. It immediately became at
home in its new residence, and remained in good
health for a considerable period. In about a week it
laid on the side of the glass, just beneath the surface
of the water, a beautiful coil of spawn, which looked
like a necklace of white beads arranged in successive ~
F 2
326 BIRTH OF THE YOUNG.
furbelows or figures-of-8, in a spiral form, making just
a coil and a half. A closer inspection showed that
these folds were inclosed in a band of clear transparent
jelly. A most beautiful object it was, even when
cursorily looked at; but when examined with a lens,
each of the beads, which at first I had supposed to be
the ova, was really a nidus of many: a perfect sphere
of clear jelly containing about sixty embryos, arrang-
ed in crescent form in the globule, fillmg more than
half of its volume.
Five days after the deposition I saw that the
embryos were in rapid motion within their spherules .
I therefore detached two from the gelatinous band,
and placed them in a cell beneath the microscope.
The little nautilus-like embryos were now seen, each
in his tiny shell of one spire, vibrating his cilia with
energy, and all swimming rapidly among each other
within their sphere, seeking an outlet. The soft walls
yielded and protruded here and there, as one and
another pressed forcibly against them, and at length
burst, and the embryos came out in turn, as they
discovered the breach. |
Taking sixty to be the average number of embryos
in each spherule, I endeavoured to estimate the total
number in this coil of spawn. I found about 25
spherules in each figure-8, which gives 750 embryos ;
then there were about 80 such convolutions in the
whole coil, which gives the total 45,000 embryos.
Yet this coil was not all the spawn perfected by this
animal in the season, for a large contorted roll is yet
visible in the ovary through the pellucid body of the
Autiopa; and these creatures are well known to
THE TORRS. af
lay their spawn at short intervals all through the
season.
THE TORRS.
The back-windows of the house where I reside look
out upon a sort of amphitheatre, the boundaries of
which are lofty hills, with slopes green to the summit.
Those to the right terminate in several pointed peaks,
the principal of which are known as the seven Torrs.
Though their inland side presents a gradual grassy
slope, seaward they form precipices of tremendous
abruptness, descending perpendicularly more than
four hundred feet to the water's edge.
The ascent of these peaks, and the walk round
their summits by a narrow path which has been cut
for the purpose, is a most agreeable promenade; but
as the Torrs are private property, a small toll is ex-
acted for the admission of visitors. We approach it
by the pleasant path which winds beside the Wilder,
now called Church-path, but formerly bearing the re-
pulsive appellation of Bloody-field, from a fatal duel
which legendary tradition reports to have been once
fought there.
A light ornamental iron gate admits us within the
precincts. We cross the little stream, and pursue our
way along its side, beneath the willows and alders that
hang over it, and almost hide it. It is near the end
of August, and the banks are fringed with a rank,
coarse herbage, adorned with many autumnal flowers.
The great willow-herb and the purple loose-strife are
conspicuous from their fine crimson blossom; the
hemp agrimony, the teasel, and the knapweed, are
828 TORR POINT.
here in coarse profusion, with the ragwort, and other
yellow composite. The thorn bushes are blushing
with their ripening scarlet haws, among which the
foliage of a white convolvulus has gracefully entwined
itself, now starred with its noble snowy flowers.
Robin-redbreast is pouring forth his simple song by
broken stanzas in an elm overshead; and a rabbit
pops out from a bush, and runs into a sort of quarry
on our left hand; a corner half-inclosed by walls of
perpendicular rock, some twenty feet high, ivy-clad,
and crowned with furze.
A winding path, with a hedge at one side, leads
steeply upward; and presently we stand at the edge of
the cliff, with a beach of rocks and boulders below.
A fog from the sea is driving up before the wind, and
rises in flocky masses and shreds of mist, veiling the
lofty precipices in dim undefined grandeur. ‘The mist
lifts a little, and we recognise, away to the right, the
Ladies’ Bathing Pool, with its wide area of quiet
water. The path winds along the verge of the cliff,
fringed with bramble, heath, and fern, among which
the modest little milkwort charms by its elegant beauty,
and the meadow-sweet by its delicious fragrance.
A narrow green promontory runs from this part into
the sea, sloping rapidly to the extremity: it is about
a hundred yards in length, and less than half as wide.
At first you would suppose its close verdant turf to be
grass, but when you examine it carefully you see that
it is almost exclusively composed of the common thrift,
which forms a bed, softer, more spongy, and more
elastic than any grass turf. This projection is called
Torr Point.
WHITE PEBBLE BAY. 329
Such green sloping promontories, with precipitious
sides, seem characteristic of this part of the coast-
There are several which I know of, succeeding each
other at short intervals, just here: one of them bears
the name of Greenaway'’s Foot. They are all exactly
alike in structure and appearance ; so much so, that
it is almost impossible to distinguish them, except
by their mutual position, or by their relation to the
hills above.
I walked down to the end, thinking that as the
slope had been so steep, I might find it easy to gain
the beach from the extremity. Butno; the precipice
was as abrupt and perpendicular here as anywhere,
and the sea still far below: where a huge angular
rock of picturesque form raised its brown head out of
the clear greenish-blue depths.
From near the middle of the western side, however,
a zigzag staircase of steps, rudely cut in the living
rock, leads down the face of the lofty cliff, to a
narrow cove of blue sand, quite inclosed by rocks ;
which, at least at the back and sides, are almost per-
pendicular, and two hundred and fifty feet in height.
By clambering over the piled masses that project into
the sea, I found myself in White Pebble Bay, an in-
dentation of more ample dimensions, strewn with large
rounded pebbles of white quartz, thick ves of which
are seen pervading the ridges of blue slate that run
along the beach. The slate, being softer than the
quartz, is more rapidly worn away by the action of
the waves and the weather ; and the latter is left pro-
jecting, until a heavier sea than ordinary breaks off frag-
ments, which by rolling soon acquire a rounded form.
330 THE MAIDEN-HAIR FERN.
Capacious tide-pools occur among the rocks far
down the beach, presenting at low-water excellent
bathing pools, some of them large and deep enough
to swim in, and sheltered from the wind by surround-
ing walls of solid rock. I enjoyed the amenities of a
bathe in one of these, in whose pure waters Laminaria
saccharina and digitata, and Halidrys siliquosa,
were waving, and the delicate crimson tufts of hhody-
menia jubata were fringing the sides, while colonies
of Anthea cereus were stretching abroad their green
and snaky tentacles.
This little bay is one of the few recognised locali-
ties for the true maiden-hair fern ; and it so happened
that while I was looking about to discover a specimen
on the cliffs, I met with a gentleman who was here
with the same object. He, however, was better in-
structed where to procure it, and how; for he had
brought servants with him, and had taken the trouble
to provide himself with a ladder, which he had reared
against the side of a glen or chine at the back of the
bay. Here, some fifteen or twenty feet up, among
the debris fallen from above, grows the maiden-hair
in little tufts, to obtain which without injury it is
necessary to detach fragments of the rock with a
hammer.
Returning to the top of the green slope, I pursue
another path along the margin of the cliffs, over the
head of White Pebble Bay. The scenery, as I sit on
the turf at the edge, is most magnificent. There is a
dark gulley on the left, cleaving the rocks down to
the cove, and then, above this, immediately in front
of me, is a broad and rugged precipice of dark grey
MEDUSOID OF CORYNE ? So
slate, nearly four hundred feet in height, in one un-
broken mass. Grass and ivy grow on the narrow
ledges and slopes, and the towering summit is crowned
by a conical peak of verdant turf, the loftiest of the
Torrs.
Up to this giddy height the path still winds by a
zigzag course; every step bringing the traveller into
a purer atmosphere, and giving him a wider and more
exhilarating prospect; just as a child of God, the
more his walk approaches heavenward, obtains fuller
and sweeter communion with his Father, and enjoys
clearer and more expanded views of his purposes, both
of providence and grace.
A NEW MEDUSOID.
Aug. 26th. In a large glass jar containing sea-
weeds and many kinds of zoophytes, &c., alive, I
found swimming in the water among the medusoids
of Campanularia volubilis, and Laomedea geniculata,
a single medusoid, in general resembling the former,
but a little smaller, and differing in the following par-
ticulars. (See Plate XXIT.)
The tentacles were eight pairs, each pair set in con-
tact with each other: at first they seemed only twin
bulbs, but after a time they lengthened into short
cylindrical wrinkled flexible arms, each terminated by
a globular head, of nearly twice the diameter of the
arm. ‘The globose head contained an irregular num-
ber of clear oval grains, each of which had an oval
mark within it; the form and structure closely resem-
bling those of the tentacles of Coryne.
332 MEDUSA-FISHING.
Between each pair of tentacles and the next pair
was set a single visual or auditory capsule, compara-
tively large, sessile on the outer border of the circular
canal: its substance was transparent and colourless,
and the higly refractile spherule within was connected
with an oval cell or vesicle, forming apparently the
end of it.
The sub-umbrella was campanulate, dense in struc-
ture, with longitudinal fibres or ruge. The umbrella
contained many oval clear granules scattered in its
substance, proportionally larger than those of the
medusoid of Camp. volubilis.
After some time I perceived that it was reversed ;
the pedicelled stomach being on the outside, and the
visual capsules being within the margin. Figs. i
and 2 represent the Medusoid: 3, a pair of tentacles:
4, an organ of vision.
MEDUSA FISHING.
A sail for a mile or two along the coast opened up
to me a new field of interesting research, and made
me acquainted with a tribe of beautiful creatures that
I had hitherto known only by report. I had provided
myself with a ring-net of fine muslin, a foot wide and
two feet deep, affixed to a staff six feet in length, for
capturing my prey; and a basket contaiing two or
three glass jars of different sizes, for preserving the
specimens and bringing them home. At first I sat in
the stern-sheets and held the net at the surface per-
pendicularly, with the staff against a thole-pin, as if
it had been an oar; drawing it in for examination after
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every two or three minutes. But I found that though
I took many specimens thus, they were of little value ;
for the way of the boat, though there was only a light
breeze, pressed them so strongly against the muslin
of the net, that they were generally dead and shape-
less when transferred to the jars.
Finding that little effective was to be done thus, I
determined to try the rocks. We steered for Samson's
Cave, a huge cavern, the entrance to which is guarded
by two large masses of projecting rock. ‘The tide was
high, however, and the sea was breaking into the
cave’s mouth, and dashing against the perpendicular
cliffs, forbidding a landing here. But within the inner
point there was a little sheltered beach, where the
rocks shoaled so as to allow landing to an agile foot,
and to afford standing place for the use of the net.
Here then I took my station, and soon perceived
several of the little beauties floating in the clear and
comparatively calm sea within reach; and these I
dipped out readily.
I adopted the plan recommended by Prof. Forbes
for transferring the captives to the jar, viz., turning
the bag of the net inside out into the water within
the jar, and letting the animals float off. But it
seemed to me that this mode injured many ; perhaps
because the mouths of the jars were somewhat too
narrow to admit the net without its falling into folds.
If a Medusa of considerable size happened to be be-
tween the folds, it would probably become spoiled by
the pressure, before it could be freed under the water.
Some of the smaller ones, moreover, say about the
size of a pea or a small button, would occasionally
bo4 THAUMANTIAS.
adhere to the muslin so firmly as not to float off when
immersed. I found it best, therefore, to look into the ©
net as soon as I had dipped, and notice all the knobs
of jelly that were visible, taking them one by one,
then putting my finger beneath each on the opposite
side of the muslin, push it under water, giving it a
shght jerk if it did not detach itself at once. Then,
when all that were perceptible were thus freed, I re-
versed the net in the jar for the minute and incon-
spicuous ones. Thus I obtained in a little while a
great multitude of specimens, many more than [ could
identify when I arrived at home. I made out, how-
ever, about ten species, and I am sure there were
many more; but by the time I had taken sketches of
such as were not mentioned by Prof. Forbes, and had
identified some of those that were, the rest were lying
a dead confused heap at the bottom of the jars.
By far the most common species hereabouts is
Thaumantias pilosella. It occurred by scores about
the rocky points; it was sure to be in the net wher I
looked at it in the boat, and it occurs in tide-pools
and recesses below the Capstone, and in the bathineg-
ponds at the Tunnel. It is about three-fourths of an
inch in diameter, like a watch-glass in form, but
rather deeper, crossed at right angles by four narrow
lines of a faint purple tint, and margined by a great
number of short slender threads, each of which has
at its base a bulb, with a dark purple speck in it.
This circle of dark dots is visible even to the naked eye,
and they are conspicuous when a pocket lens is brought
to bear on them. But there is a way in which they
may be made most beautifully and brilliantly con-
ITS LAMPS OF LIGHT. 335
spicuous. I went into my study after dark without a
candle, to’ try whether any of the captives in the
different vases were luminous. [ took a slender stick
and felt about in the water at random; presently I
touched something soft, and instantly a circle of
bright little lamps was lighted up, like a coronet of
sparkling diamonds, or like a circular figure of gas
jets, lighted at a public illumination, and seen from a
distance ; more especially as some of the constituent
sparks appeared to go out, and revive again, just as
do the gas-flames if the night be windy. The phos-
phorescence, though but momentary, was renewed as
often as I touched the animal, which was not very
often, as I feared to injure it.
As this was the commonest species of Medusa here,
as its structure is simple and may be taken as normal
in the tribe, and as it belongs to a genus that in-
cludes by far the largest number of British species, I
will describe it in detail as a sample of the rest.
It consists of an umbrella-shaped bell of clear
colourless jelly, like a watch-glass, if you imagine it a
great deal thicker in the centre than at the margins ;
but sometimes becoming hemispherical in outline.
The inner surface of the bell is lined with a skin
equally gelatinous transparent and colourless with the
former, but often minutely wrinkled, and generally
easy to be distinguished by its appearance: this is
called the snb-umbrella. From its centre depends a
very moveable, flexible peduncle, composed of more
substantial flesh than the bell, and evidently cellular
and fibrous. In this genus it is small, but in some
it protrudes beyond the margin of the bell; it gene-
336 STRUCTURE OF A MEDUSA.
rally terminates, as in the present case, in four ex-
panded fleshy lips, extremely flexible and versatile,
and capable of seizing prey, which is transferred to a
stomach situated in the interior of the peduncle.
From the base of this hanging stomach, four slender
vessels diverge at so many right angles, and passing
across the surface of the sub-umbrella, proceed to its
margin, where they communicate with another vessel,
that runs completely round the edge. The circulation
of a nutrient fluid can be very distinctly traced in all
these canals.
The four radiating vessels are bordered in the out-
ward half of their course by the ovaries, which in this
species are narrow and linear, but are more or less
conspicuous according to their degree of development.
In a specimen now before me, these ovaries are full
of clear globose ova with central nuclei; they are of
various sizes, some being so large as to bulge out the
side of the ovary.
The sides of the marginal canal are thick and
granular, and give rise to a number of bulbous pro-
cesses, composed apparently of the same substance,
and running off into slender thread-like tentacles very
flexible, extensile, and contractile. The bulbous bases
frequently contain highly-coloured masses of matter,
which are considered by Prof. Forbes and others as
rudimentary eyes. In the species before us, these
spots are crescent-shaped, and of a deep purple hue,
forming a conspicuous circle of specks around the
margin, even to the naked eye. In general the ten-
tacles, whether many or few, are all of the same kind;
but in this species there are several (from four to
THE VISUAL CAPSULES. 337
seven) minuter tentacles without bulbs, between every
two of the larger sort. ‘The latter vary much in
number and size, and are not at all symmetrical, either
In position or arrangement, some being twice as close
together as others. In the specimen before me, the
quadrants of the margin formed by the radiating
canals present respectively the following numbers of
primary tentacles :—16, 10, 9, 14; 49. Some, too,
of these are small and apparently developing.
Besides these organs, the margin is furnished with
others, which, by those who consider the pigment
masses to be eyes, are believed to be organs of hear-
ing, but which seem to me rather to be the true media
of vision. ‘They consist of cells, usually more or less
globose, containing one or more spherical bodies of
high refracting power. Prof. Forbes has not noticed
them in his description of this species; they are, how-
ever, large and peculiar ;—first in shape, being semi-
elliptical swellings of the substance of the marginal
canal, and secondly in the number of their spherules,
which varies from about 35 to 50 in each capsule.
The spherules are arranged in a double crescentic
row, those which form the middle being generally
larger than those at the extremities. The capsules
are eight in number, two in each quadrant, nearly
equally distributed; but not holding any fixed rela-
tion of position to the tentacles.
CHAPTER XIV.
Rapparee Cove—Strange Gravel—Its singular Origin.—The
Glassy ASquorea—Its Form and Structure—The Forbesian
Aiquorea—The Bathing-Pool— Meduse therein—Description
of a new Species—Its Habits—Luminousness—Distinctive
Characters—The Ruby Medusa—Its first Occurrence—Wig-
mouth—Production of the Gemmules—Their Appearance—
Motion of the Turris—Metamorphosis of the Gemmules—
Their Polype-form—Goodness of God in the Beautiful—A
Christian’s Interest in Nature—The Redeemed Inheritance—
The Crystalline Johnstonella—Its Beauty—Its Doubtful Afii-
nities—The Starry Willsia—Parasitic Leech—Tmread Cap-
sules—Nature of these Organs.
As the visitor pursues the pleasant walk leading
through what are called the Quay Fields, he cannot
help seeing, here and there, a rather obtrusive direc-
tion-board with a finger pointing towards a certain
point of the shore, accompanied by the announcement
that such is the way to Rapparee Cove, whose claims
to notice as a bathing place, on account of its
privacy and comfort, are somewhat boastfully set
forth.
I visited it, and found it indeed, like so much of
the scenery hereabout, sufficiently wild, romantic, and
picturesque. It is situated immediately opposite the
entrance to the harbour, under the shadow of the
RAPPAREE COVE. 339
gigantic Hillsborough. The Cove itself is a spacious
area, almost locked in, being protected seaward by
rocks, and environed on three sides by cliffs, more
than usually lofty, and much too steep to be climbed.
In fact there-is no access to it, when the tide is in,
but by a narrow foot-path, that has been cut in one
part of the rock, the entrance to which is guarded by
agate. Precipitious as are these cliffs, however, they
are green with ivy, that trails and hangs in graceful
freedom over their surface, and with fern which grows
upon them in great luxuriance. Tufts of samphire
spring from the rugged ledges; and at the foot of the
cliffs, which jut out in projecting buttresses, like the
great spurs of the cotton-trees in tropical climates,
the white goose-foot was growing, with its large an-
gular leaves curiously covered with a sort of web,
easily removeable with the fingers, and having on
their under surfaces an appearance and texture that
closely resembled fine flannel. There, too, was the
corn sow-thistle, a fine plant with large yellow flowers,
eminently characteristic of the season, for it was the
month of September.
The floor of the cove is principally composed of
sand, which changes, as it approaches low-water mark,
to small shingle. Among the latter, the observant
stranger notices a quantity of yellow gravel, scattered
all along the water-line between tide-marks. This at
once strikes him as a remarkable feature, seeing that
nothing of the kind is found on other parts of this
coast, nor does any analogous formation exist in the
vicinity.
On inquiry, he learns that these yellow pebbles are
340 A RECORD OF SHIPWRECK.
strangers, and not natives of the place; that they are,
in fact, the enduring records of a tragical event that
occurred some fifty years ago.
Jt was in the war with France, which ushered in
the commencement of the present century, that two
transports returning from the West Indies, with black
prisoners from some of: the French Islands, were
driven on shore in this cove, while attempting to
enter the harbour of Ilfracombe in stress of weather.
Most of the people escaped with their lives, but
almost everything else on board was lost; and for
years after the sad event, the people of the town used
to find gold coins, and jewels, among the shingle
at low-tide. The vessels were ballasted with this
yellow gravel, which though washed to and fro by the
rolling surf, remains to bear witness of this shipwreck,
and to identify the spot where it took place ; a curious
testimony, which probably will endure long after the
event itself is lost in oblivion, and perhaps until the
earth and all the works therein shall be burned up.
THE GLASSY AQUOREA.
Among the treasures which rewarded my first at-
tempt at Medusa fishing was a beautiful translucent
species of a genus, which when Professor Forbes pub-
lished his Monograph had not been recognised as
British, but a species of which has been lately de-
scribed by that accomplished naturalist. Though the
genus contains many species, I cannot find any de-
scription that agrees with the present, which I desig-
nate as the Glassy Aiquorea (Aiguorea vitrina).
It may be thus described.
*
THE GLASSY EQUOREA. 84]
Umbrella hemispheric, or sub-conic, about 14 inch
wide and 2 inch high. (Plate XXIII. fig. 1). Sub-
umbrella very low, depressed and funnel-shaped in
in the centre, which is quite perforate, the sides of
the funnel descending into a peduncie, which expands
into many (about 20) narrow, pointed, divaricating,
reflexed, furbelowed points, reaching to about the
level of the margin. The peripheral half of the sub-
umbrella is traversed by about ninety radiating lines,
(See fig. 2) which are colourless but resemble bands
of frosted or ground glass upon a body of clear glass.
They are swollen irregularly or attenuated in parts,
and where swollen appear to be penetrated by a cen-
tral vessel. The central portion of the sub-umbrella,
a perfect circle, into which these lines run, is of the
frosted appearance, with radiating fine lines of crys-
talline, proceeding from the centre of each of the
marginal lines. In the funnel of the sub-umbrella,
lines of opaque white commence, alternating with the
erystalline lines, and gradually emerge into the fur-
belows of the peduncle (fig. 5).
The vessels of the sub-umbrella appear to be in
many cases lost just before reaching the marginal
canal; some however can be traced into it. The mar-
ginal canal is very slender, and gives origin to a great
number of excessively attenuated white tentacles, two
or three to each vessel, or more than 200 in all.
Their bulbous origins are minute ; they are generally
much wrinkled and contorted, and adhere to any
object they touch. (See figs. 3 and 4).
I had turned the animal back-downwards for ex-
amination, and presently saw the funnel-like peduncle
042 THE GLASSY ZQUOREA.
dilate into a wide circular orifice, of which it formed
merely a delicately-membranous margin, the white
lines radiating through it (as seen at fig. 7) and pro-
longed into long narrow furbelowed filaments, remote
from each other, and connected by a sort of a web,
waved at its edge. Where the stomach can be I
cannot conceive, since the peduncle is nothing but
this membranous circle. I passed a slender stick
through the orifice without meeting any resistance
until it touched the clear, perfectly transparent sub-
stance of the umbrella, at the level of the highest
part of the sub-umbrella.
Not a trace of colour appears in the whole animal,
which yet is exquisitely beautiful. It was swimming
near the surface, a mile or two off shore, near Water-
mouth, when I dipped it, on the afternoon of August
26th. In captivity it was moderately active, swim-
ming gracefully, but keeping the tentacles generally
contracted and inconspicuous. It was luminous when
irritated in the dark.
A day or two afterwards I obtained another speci-
men much smaller, not more than 4 inch in diameter,
to which I was enabled to apply a higher power.
The tentacles in this specimen (perhaps from its con-
dition of adolescence) alternated with bulbs not de-
veloped into tentacles; and each had at its base a very
minute but perfect colourless ocellus, with from two
to five highly refractile spherules unsymmetrically
included within the globule. ‘Two or three was the
most common number; and they were not always
of the same size, one being frequently present not half
the size of the others. Fig. 6 shows a portion of the
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THE FORBESIAN 2 QUOREA. 3438
marginal canal, much magnified, with two tentacle-
bulbs and two ocelli.
The white lines that run down into the filaments
produced from the edge of the peduncle are composed
of oblong polyhedral cells set transversely. The web
which borders them and fills the interspaces is com-
posed of minute close set granules.
The radiating bands of the sub-umbrella, that I have
compared to ground glass, are vessels, and do run
into the marginal canal; the irregular dilatations are
not ovaries, but simple enlargements of the vessels:
a fluid circulates in them, carrying granules along
rather rapidly: the current appears to pass up from
the margin towards the centre of the sub-umbrella,
near the walls of the canals, while a reverse current
occupies the middle part, the granules frequently pas-
sing from one into the other current. At the point
where the canals enter the circular frosted disk, they
have thickened fleshy lips, capable of closing so as to
make tubes, or of separating to form grooves. A lon-
gitudinal texture of fibres is plainly visible in these
grooves.
THE FORBESIAN ZQUOREA.
Sept. 7th—There had been a heavy breeze all
night and this morning from the N.E. which had
set a good deal of sea in upon the shore. I took
down my Medusa-net and jars to the shore at the
Tunnel rocks, more for the sake of a walk than with
the expectation of obtaining any thing, for the wind
and sea were still high. But my first glance at the
water revealed many Meduse.
There is on the shore here a large pool, partly
344 WRECKED MEDUS.
formed by nature; but it has been built up in some
places so as to make it a perfect reservoir. Being
overflowed by the sea at high-water, its purity is
renewed twice every day, and as it retains its contents
when the tide recedes, it remains always full, a pond
of nearly an acre in extent, and of considerable depth.
Though far above low-water mark its depth and con-
stant fulness make it a favourable locality for many
sea-weeds, which under ordinary circumstances would
thrive only at a level very much lower. The shelving
sides, especially in the deeper parts, and where the
artificial wall has been supplied, are densely fringed
with Laminarie, and many fine species of the
Floridee in great luxuriance.
It was at the leeward side of this pond that I Pape
pened first to look, and there in the nooks and corners,
driven up by the wind, were several very flat Medusz
of large size lying motionless upon the floating weeds,
and many more of a smaller species crowded together
upon the surface of the water. ‘The latter were, as I
guessed at the first glance, Thaumantias pilosella, all
dead, mostly covered with minute air-bubbles, and in
many cases totally deprived of the sub-umbrella, with
all the organs, leaving nothing but the gelatinous
umbrella.
I walked around the pond, and found the same
accumulation in most of the corners on the lee side.
Thence down to the edge of the rocks, where the sea
was dashing in with fury; there too in the inlets and
crevices of the rocks, were the same two sorts driven
in, the former by dozens, the Z'haumantias by
hundreds.
THE FORBESIAN AQUOREA. 345
On examination the larger flattened ones resolved
themselves into two species. One was the colourless
frosted A/quorea that I had obtained before, several
specimens of which appeared in no wise to differ from
the former. But the majority of individuals now cast
ashore were of a much larger and finer species of the
same genus. (See Plate XXIV).
It differs from the former species in the following
particulars. It ismuch larger, being from two to three
inches in diameter, but lower in proportion, being
about 14 inch in height, and resembling a cake or
bun in shape. The umbrella is smooth, clear, and
apparently colourless; but when viewed sidewise-
against a dark back-ground, the rays of lght that
pass through the whole diameter of the umbrella are
tinged of the most brilliant azure blue, which colour
prevails for about a quarter of an inch above the sum-
mit of the sub-umbrella, and is then gradually lost,
doubtless by the rapid diminution of the thickness of
substance through which the rays are transmitted.
The sub-umbrella is very low and depressed, about
3 inch in height: its substance is colourless, but the
radiating vessels that traverse it, and which were
frosted in the former species, are here of a delicate
rosy hue, which is the colour also of the dependent
margin of the central circle that occupies the place of
a peduncle. They are fewer (about 65 or 70 in all)
and more slender, than in 4. vitrina.
The sides of this circle are cut into four triangular
lobes of membrane (more or less developed), which
are fringed with delicate attenuated pink filaments,
depending and floating freely in the water. The
346 THE FORBESIAN A. QUOREA.
microscope shows them to be furbelowed slips of
membrane, as in the former species, but here they are
much finer, and instead of being equal and con-
tinuous, are graduated and interrupted. Each trian-
gular lobe has them longest at ‘its middle point,
whence they decrease in length on either hand; and
there is a space between every lobe and the next,
which is quite destitute of fringe.
The marginal vessel is very slender, and carries
about thirty-six very fine thread-like tentacles,
usually contracted in close spirals to ¢ inch in length,
but sometimes depending to the extent of several
inches, in which case they seem as fine as a spider's
thread. They are not symmetrically disposed, nor do
they bear any regular relation of position to the radi-
ating vessels. Their colour is pale pink or flesh
colour. Their texture is minutely granular, and their
bulbs present a similar appearance to those of the for-
mer species. As in that also, so here, there are
numerous auditory or visual capsules, with from one
to four spherules in each.
This very fine Medusa commonly floats at the
surface in captivity ; and seems to have little locomo-
tive power, contrasting strongly with the minute
Turres and Oceanie that shoot along with vigorous
leaps in various depths. It maintains a pretty uniform,
not very rapid, contraction of its sub-umbreila, but
with occasional intervals of quietude. I observe that
at the beginning of contraction after repose, the action
of one side is frequently not simultaneous with that
of the opposite, but presently they become so.
At night I tried its luminous power. When I
~
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ITS LUMINOSITY. 347
tapped the glass jar in which two specimens were
floating at the surface, with my finger-nails, instantly
each became brilliantly visible as a narrow ring of
light, the whole marginal canal becoming Juminous.
On my touching them with the end of a stick, the
light became more vivid, and round spots appeared
here and there in the ring, of intense lustre and of a
greenish-blue tint. ‘These were, I doubt not, the ten-
tacle-bulbs, ana any one of them would be excited to
this intensity by my touching that part of the margin
with the stick. The luminosity of the ring was not
so evanescent as in some species, lasting several
seconds, and continuing to be renewed as often as [
molested the animal. The two circles of light, two
inches or more in diameter, were very beautiful as
they moved freely in the water, sinking or rising ac-
cording as they were touched, now seen in full rotun-
dity, now shrinking to an oval, or to a line, as either
turned sidewise to the eye ; and reminded me of the
rings of glory in the pictures of the Italian school,
round the heads of saints.
A very fine A/quorea has lately been found by
Professor Forbes inhabiting the Scottish seas, and
has been described by him under the name of
Ajquorea Forskalit, in a Memoir read before the
Zoological Society of London. The present differs
in many important particulars from that species,
which I[ think it surpasses in beauty, and nearly equals
in size. The proportionate thickness of the umbrella
and sub-umbrella; the radiating canals, in the one
abruptly, i the other very gradually merging into
the stomach; the simply furbelowed lips of the sto-
348 THE RUBY MEDUSA.
mach in one, and the angular ciliated processes in
the other ; the number of the radiating canals and of
the tentacles: the colour of the former, vzolet¢ in one,
roseate in the other; the pendent membranes that are
attached to them in the one case, and wot in the
other; the colour of the stomach, fory-brown in the
one, rose-pink in the other; and the difference in the
size of the tentacles and their bulbs in the two cases ;
—are diversities so prominent and obvious, that I
hesitate not for a moment in pronouncing the two
species distinct. I cannot any better succeed in
identifying my beautiful Medusa with any of the same
genus that I can find described by foreign authors.
I therefore propose to distinguish the present species
as Alquorea Forbesiana, in unfeigned honour and
respect for a naturalist of the highest eminence,
whose pen and pencil have alike served to elucidate,
above all his compeers, these very lovely forms.
THE RUBY MEDUSA.
6 :
Throughout the autumn the sea around Ilfracombe
was thickly peopled by that charming little Medusa,
Turris neglecta. It was found in the quiet rock-pools
between the tides, in the harbour, and in the open sea,
so that the net could scarcely be dipped without
bringing up one or more, looking like “ beads of coral”
on the muslin. And when put into a glass vessel of
sea-water, few sights could be more pleasing than a
dozen of these tiny gems stretching their delicate
tentacles, and shooting along by vigorous strokes in
various directions through the clear element. Nor
WIGMOUTH. 349
was it difficult to protract the pleasure; for the little
éreatures.are kept alive with great ease for many
days. (See Plate XIJHl. fig. 6, nat. size; fig. 7.
magnified).
My first acquaintance with the species was made on
August 28th. A tiny specimen, not more than —;th of
an inch in height, was caught among other Meduse
off the little cove of Wigmouth. This is a beautiful
little nook for bathing, being quite unfrequented,
about two miles from the town, and having a smooth
sandy beach evenly sloping down, without rocks, ex-
cept at each side, where rocky walls inclose it about
fifty yards apart. These rocky sides projecting ito
the sea allow of our walking out on their points and
ledges close to the water's edge. Here I stood, and
with a muslin net at the end of a pole dipped for the
smaller Meduse that were enjoying the afternoon sun
at the smooth clear surface. Many of these the rays
of the sun made visible against the dark depths, and
such I could select; but the more minute kinds were -
not perceptible, and these I could only dip for ata
venture, unconscious of their presence, until the ever-
sion of the net in the collecting jar discovered them
as prisoners.
This pigmy Twurris was inert when I examined it;
the gelatinous umbrella turbid and almost opaque,
and the peduncle large and dull crimson. But in the
course of the next day considerable alteration had
taken place in its appearance. (Plate XIII. fig. 8).
The margin was contracted and turned back, exposing
a great part of the peduncle, which had become both
thicker and longer; its redness was also more intense
H 2
350 GEMMULES OF TURRIS.
and inclined to orange, and many oval gemmules of
dark lake-crimson, or purple, were seen in its sub-
stance. On the floor of the cell in which it was con-
fined were more than a dozen of the gemmules already
escaped ; I at first supposed them eggs, but on closer
examination, found that they were active little swim-
ming creatures with a will of their own; that they
were in fact gemmules, perfectly oval in form, about
= inch in length, and of a fine lake hue: their whole
surface covered with vibratile cilia, by means of which
they glided about with an even quick motion. (See
fig>.D):.
Two days afterwards these gemmules were still
active, and possessed the power of locomotion. ‘They
were not perceptibly changed in appearance, except
that they seemed a little larger.
On the 4th Sept. I noticed one lying at the bottom
of the phial in which I had put them. I extracted it
by means of a glass tube, and found that its colour
had become paler, being now of a rose-pink, that its
surface was irregularly granulose as if decomposing,
and that motion had ceased.
On the same day I took two specimens about — in.
high, brilliantly conspicuous from the orange coloured
or pale vermillion ovaries studded with large ova of a
rich purple hue. The umbrella is remarkably turbid,
being scarcely more than pellucid, and appearing
quite white against a dark background. When rest-
ing ina phial of water, the tentacles are elongated,
like white threads of an equal thickness throughout,
and are extended in every direction, some perpen-
dicularly upwards, some downwards, and some arching
MOTION IN THE MEDUS2&. SO
outwards. Thus it les quite motionless, but on the
slightest jar being given to the vessel, or to the table
on which it stands, all the tentacles at the same in-
stant are contracted into minute contorted balls, so
suddenly that it seems the work of magic. If undis-
turbed, however, they are quickly unrolled again,
almost as quickly as they were contracted. Ifthe tenta-
cles when thus extended are carefully examined, they
are seen to be slightly club-shaped at their extremities.
The tentacles in this species, when subjected to
pressure, are resolved into a multitude of minute oval
granules set close together, without any variation of
density in different parts. Their length is not more
than a inch. I suppose these, from analogy, to be
filiferous capsules, though their minuteness prevents
me from seeing (with a power of 300) more than an
evanescent indication of the filiferous cavity ; and the
plates of the compressorium were not able to produce
a projection of the filament.
The lips of the peduncle are furnished with capsules
exactly similar, crowded together in groups, and (as
it appears to me) forming little tubercles, from which
their points diverge in every direction.
The motion of the Meduse through the water seems
to be performed on the same principle as that of the
larva of the Dragonfly; viz. by a jet of water forcibly
expelled, and impinging on the surrounding fluid.
In Turris, whose motions, owing to its muscular
development, are very energetic, the jet is very distinct
and strong. This appears to be the modus operandt :
four muscular bands, as Prof. Forbes has shown, pass
across the surface of the sub-umbrella, from the root
o02 A TURRIS OVIPOSITING.
of the peduncle to the margin. This course is not a
straight but a curved one. When therefore these
bands are simultaneously and forcibly contracted in
length, they are drawn from a curved into a straight
line, and the cavity which was bell-shaped becomes
more conical, and its capacity is considerably dimin-
ished ; a portion of the water which it before held is
therefore driven out at the mouth, and by its reaction
forces the animal forward with a jerk in the opposite
direction. I think, however, that the action of the
radiating bands of muscle is aided by circular bands
lining the sub-umbrella, as well as by the marginal
one; for when a Turris in strong contractions 1s at-
tentively watched in an upright position, there are
seen indrawings of the sides from the perpendicular at
every contraction, that the shortening of the radiating
bands is not sufficient to account for.
Fig. 8 represents a Turris in the state of oviposit-
ing; the peduncle enormously swollen and become
globose, with its lower part showing the four orange
ovaries, distended with purple gemmules. It lies on
its side on the bottom, the four lips protruded at one
extremity, and around the other the diminished and
reverted umbrella gathered in small vesicular puckers.
In this condition one would not recognise it as a
Medusa, if not familiar with it.* The oval purple
*Of the scores of this species that Ihave kept, this was the common,
and therefore, I presume, the natural, termination of life. Mrs. Davis,
in the interesting note of one kept by her, communicated to the Ann.
N. H., vol. vii, alludes to it. ‘‘ At the end of a fortnight one of my pets
turned itself inside outwards, and remained in this state for some time,
when it died, and left only a few floculent particles at the bottom of the
vessel.’ Ido not doubt that if the sediment had been carefully ex-
amined with a microscope, the intelligent observer would have dis-
covered among it many of the crimson oval gemmules,
ASSUMPTION OF THE POLYPE-FORM. 358
gemmules (fig. 9) seem to escape from the walls of the
ovaries, working their way out at the sides. They
drop down on the bottom of the vessel, where they
move about slowly for a while, to no great extent, by
means of their vibratile cilia.
All through September, as this species was very
numerous in the harbour and in the neighbouring
coves, I procured great numbers of them, most of
which I placed in a deep cylindrical glass vessel,—
the chimney of a lamp, in fact, with a plate of glass
cemented across one end forabottom. By examining
this bottom-plate from beneath with a lens, [ found
early in September that a good many of the gemmules
had affixed themselves to it, and were changing their
form. By watching them, I ascertained the following
facts. The gemmule, having adhered to the glass,
grows out into a lengthened form, variously knobbed
and swollen, and frequently dividing into two branches,
the whole adhering closely to the glass. After a day
or two's growth in this manner, a perpendicular stem
begins to shoot from some point of this creeping root,
and soon separates into four straight, slender, shghtly
divergent tentacles, which shoot to a considerable
length. The whole is of a crimson hue, with the
exception of the growing extremities of the creeping
root, which are pellucid white. The little creature is
now a Polype of four tentacles. (See fig. 10).
I could not follow the development farther, for
though I had perhaps, a dozen in this stage, on the
bottom of the glass, they all died without farther
growth. And though, for weeks after, many gemmules
were deposited, and I could see plenty every day
O04 GOODNESS OF GOD IN THE BEAUTIFUL.
crawling about the glass, not one manifested the least
inclination to become adherent, or to grow into a
Polype. Indeed, they differed in appearance from
those first produced, for these were all true planules,
being elongated and produced at one end into a blunt
point, with considerable power of change in the
outline.
When we look at a lovely object like this, we are
conscious of a positive enjoyment, arising from the
gratification of our sense of beauty; a sort of appe-
tite, if I may so cal] it, implanted in our nature by
the beneficent Creator, expressly for our satisfaction.
The garden which the Lord God prepared for unfallen
man was furnished with “every tree that was pleasant
to the sight,” as well as “good for food.” And surely
it is not too much to suppose that even in the Infinite
Mind of God himself there is a quality analogous to
this in us, the sense of material beauty, the approval
of what is in itself lovely in form and colour and
arrangement, and pleasure in the contemplation of it ;
distinct from and independent of the question of
relative fitness or moral excellence. If such a suppo-
sition needed proof, I would simply adduce the pro-
fuse existence of beauty in created things, and refer
to the word that “For His pleasure they are, and
were created.”
But there is another poimt of view from which a
Christian,—by which expression | mean one who by
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ has passed from
death unto life, and not one who puts on the title as
he would a garment, merely for convenience or cus-
tom’s sake—looks at the excellent and the beautiful
A CHRISTIANS INTEREST IN NATURE. 355
in nature. He has a personal interest in it all; 7¢ zs
a part of his own inheritance. As a child roams
over his father's estate, and is ever finding some quiet
nook, or clear pool, or foaming waterfall, some lofty
avenue, some bank of sweet flowers, some picturesque
or fruitful tree, some noble and wide-spread prospect,
—how is the pleasure heightened by the thought ever
recurring,—All this will be mznve by and by! And
though’ he may not understand all the arrangements,
nor fathom the reasons of all the work that he sees
going on, he knows that all enhances the value of the
estate, which in due time will be his own possession.
So with the Christian. The sin-pressed earth,
groaning and labouring now under the pressure of the
Fall, isa part of the mheritance of the Lord Jesus,
bought with his blood. He has paid the price of its re-
demption, and at the appointed time will reign over it.
But when the Lord reigneth, his people shall reign
too; and hence their song is, “Thou hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood,...... and we shall reign on the
earth.” For unto the angels hath He not put in sub-
jection the world to come, but unto Him who though
Son of God is likewise Son of Man,—even to Him
in association with the “many sons” whom He is
bringing to glory.
And thus I have a right to examine, with as great
minuteness as I can bring to the pleasant task, con-
sistently with other claims, what are called the works
of nature. I have the very best right possible, the
right that flows from the fact of their being all mine,
—mine not indeed in possession, but in sure reversion.
And if any one despise the research as mean and little,
356 THE CRYSTALLINE JOHNSTONELLA.
T reply that Iam scanning the plan of my inheritance.
And when I find any tiny object rooted to the rock, or
swimming in the sea, in which I trace with more than
common measure the grace and delicacy of the Master
Hand, I may not only give Him praise for his skill
and wisdom, but thanks also, for that He hath
taken the pains to contrive, to fashion, to adorn
this, for me.
THE CRYSTALLINE JOHNSTONELLA.
I have the pleasure of announcing a new animal of
much elegance, which I believe to be of a hitherto
unrecognised form. I shall describe it under the
appellation of Johnstonella Catharina. (Plate XXV).
Body 2 inch long, : inch in greatest diameter, flat,
thin, as transparent and colourless as glass.
Head dilated on each side into two lobes, which are
flat, pointed, and leaf-lke, extending laterally to a
considerable distance. Along the posterior pair are
soldered a pair of excessively long, slender antenne,
tapering to a fine point; they appear simple unjointed
filaments, directed divergently backwards to a greater
length than the body, and incapable of change in
direction. The basal moiety of their length is invest-
ed with a loose skin, which corrugates into folds.
Eyes two, black, small, on the summit of the head,
between the posterior lobes: a line of minute black
specks runs down the middle of the neck behind
the eves.
Body narrow at each extremity, widening in the mid-
dle: furnished on each side with sixteen fin-like narrow
lobes, each of which bears at its extremity two oval
PH G08se del et lith
ITS FORM AND STRUCTURE. 357
branchial (?) leaves, set on obliquely. The ultimate
pairs diminish gradually, and are succeeded by a few
pairs of rudimentary processes on each side of a
slender tail.
Viscera, a simple, clear, rather wide canal running
through the whole length; ordinarily parallel sided,
but sometimes constricted so as to form a succession
of spindle-shaped divisions, which pass from the head
to the tailin rather slow pulsations, like the dorsal
vessel of a caterpillar. A thick esophageal proboscis
was once protruded from the mouth, of an ob-conic
form, with a large somewhat four-sided orifice obliquely
terminal. No other internal structure was visible,
notwithstanding the perfect transparency of the
animal.
The elegant form, the crystal clearness, and the
sprightly, graceful movements of this little swimmer
in the deep sea, render it a not altogether unfit vehicle
for the commemoration of an honoured name in
marine zoology.
The skilful pencil of Mrs. Johnston, employed in
the delineation of the interesting forms that stand on
the verge of animal life, has succeeded in presenting
them to us with peculiar truth and beauty ; and has
rendered an invaluable aid to the verbal descriptions
of her indefatigable and eminent husband. I venture
respectfully to appropriate to this marine animal,
the surname and christian name of Mrs. Catharine
Johnston, as a personal tribute of gratitude for the
great aid which I have derived from her engravings in
the study of zoophytology.
Three specimens of the Johnstonella have come
398 ITS HABITS AND AFFINITIES.
into my possession ; all of which were dipped from
the surface of the sea off the harbour of Ilfracombe,
about the end of August. Ina glass jar their motions
were excessively vivacious; they swam with great
swiftness by the rapid vibration of the lateral fins;
so incessantly that it was with the utmost difficulty I
could examine them with the microscope. They darted
through the water in all directions, across and around
the jar; and when they rested, their translucency
rendered them almost invisible. They soon died in
captivity ; I think I did not keep one of them longer
than the second day.
The form of this animal is so anomalous that it is
difficult to assign it a place in the system of nature.
At first sight it has somewhat the aspect of a
Branchiopod Crustacean; but the evertible cesophagus,
the numerous lateral lobes, and the leaf-like expan-
sions with which they are terminated, rather indicate
an affinity with the Annelida. It is possible that it
may prove a larva of some known form in this Class.
The specimens that I have found, however, presented
no differences in size or development.
My description and figure are both less complete
in details than I could have wished to render them,
owing to the agility and to the evanescence of the
animal. I hoped to supply the deficiencies by the
study of other specimens, but this hope was disap-
pointed. The structure and form of the leaf-lke
appendages of the lateral lobes, in particular, need
further revision.
Fig. 1 represents it of the natural size, fig. 2, mag-
nified.
THE WILLSIA AND ITS PARASITE. 359
THE STARRY WILLSIA.
Sept. 8th.—In the clear quiet water of the bathing
pool I dipped this afternoon many Medusa, almost
all of these two species, Thaumantias pilosella and
Witlsia stellata. One of the former presented a curi-
ous deviation from ordinary structure, in that one of
the radiating vessels was divided into three branches
at about one third of its length from the marginal
canal, the ovary likewise branched correspondingly.
The other vessels were quite normal.
Less numerous than this, but sufficiently common,
was the pretty Widlsza, a little gem, with its six-rayed
star of yellow ovaries, and its circlet of black eyes.
(Plate XX, fig. 1). The radiating vessels in this
species, six in number, are naturally divided into
branches, each entering the marginal canal by four
mouths, like the Delta of some great continental river.
The sub-umbrella is not evenly round, but lobed,
the radiating vessels running along deep depressions
or valleys, between which the surface rises into hills.
(See fig. 2).
I found in one of the Willste a curious parasitic
Leech. I know not on what part, for I first discover-
ed it after I had subjected the Medusa to the compres-
sorium. Jt is an active little animal, with two suck-
ers, of which the anterior is imperfect and mouth-like,
and the posterior is circular, produced into a thick
wart, and set on the ventral surface at about one
third of the whole length from the tail. There are eight
360 THREAD-CAPSULES.
eyes, very minute, colourless, and set around the
frontal margin of the anterior disk; the anus is
terminal. The ovary is large, and filled with a number
of clear, globular, highly refractile ova. Close-set
transverse annuli were conspicuous on the fore half of
the body.
When the Medusa was subjected to. pressure, I
observed several vesicles of exceedingly subtle mem-
brane, loosely wrinkled, containing a number (varying
from one or two to thirty) of clear oval bodies, about
sath inch in longest diameter. (See fig. 3). The
vesicles were placed at the end of a short canal, or
neck, or footstalk, of similar membrane, originating
from the marginal canal, and freely standing up on
the outside of the umbrella, as I believe. Each of
the oval granules had a body within it, which I at
first supposed a cell, but in one I distinctly saw that
it was composed of a number of oblique parallel lines
(See fig. 4). On pressure being increased, all the
oval capsules simultaneously shot forth, from one end,
a thread of great tenuity and of excessive length. I
could trace them to about fifty times the length of the
oval, and am not at all sure that I saw their extremity,
for with a power of 300 they became undistinguishable
farther. The thread, in an instant so brief as to be
inappreciable, assumed perfect straightness, (except a
slight curve in some cases), just as if composed of
some highly elastic substance, that had hitherto been
compressed But close examination showed an appear-
ance like that of a corrugated sheath enveloping it
for a considerable portion of its length, perhaps one
third, from the oval capsule (See fig. 5).
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THE OVARIES. 361
This was the first occasion on which I had an
opportunity of seeing the filiferous capsules, as these
bodies are called, for though I have described, in
previous parts of this volume, similar organs, the
actual observations so recorded were, in point of time,
subsequent to this.
The presence of these aggregations of capsules
appears to be subject to much variation. In some
specimens of the Wedlsta that I examined, there were
several, perhaps five or six; in many I could not by
strict searching, find more than one or two solitary
capsules, seemingly scattered in the substance of the
umbrella near the margin, yet shooting out the thread
on pressure, exactly like those aggregated in a vesicle.
But perhaps in these they may have been present,
though overlooked, in a situation where I afterwards
found them numerous in each specimen that I ex-
amined, viz. within the substance of the double
ovaries, and chiefly near their termination. In each
lobe there were many capsules, not arranged nor
gathered into vesicles, but apparently loose in the
yellow granular substance. But none of these had
developing ova; only one that I examined had ova
in the form of transparent globules with a central clear
nucleus ; and that specimen I had destroyed before I
had detected this situation for the capsules. However,
in that specimen I know that, after pressure, I could
find no more than a single capsule, all over the
Medusa.
These facts suggested the thought that possibly
these organs that look like ovaries may in some cases
be testes, and the filiferous capsules be organs of
I2
562 SPERMATOZOA.
conjunction. I do not think them analogous to*Sper-
matozoa, though these appear to be present also; for
when the ovaries (or testes) gave way under pressure,
their substance contained with the coloured granules
a multitude of excessively minute bodies with spon-
taneous vibratile motion. They were evidently
oblong, but too minute for me to discern their tails,
if they had any.
CHAPTER XV.
’
This Coast favourable for Oceanic Productions—The Red-lined
Medusa—Its Form and Structure—The Eyes—The Fur-
belows—A_ parasitic Shrimp—Its supposed Young—Beauty
of the Medusa—Its Prehensile Powers—Capture of Prey—
Curious Mode of eating—Experiments—New Use of the
Furbelows—Development of the Eges—Their Structure—
Thread-Capsules—Synonymy—The White Pelagia—The
Mantis Shrimp—Its spectral Figure and strange Actions—
Its Weapons—The Caddis Shrimp—The Tiny Oceania—
Busk’s Thaumantias—The Fairy’s Cap.
THE RED LINED MEDUSA.
The conformation of the Bristol] Channel, and of
the adjacent coasts, offers peculiar facilities for the
study of those marine animals whose proper sphere of
existence is the wide ocean. The prevailing westerly
winds, driving up the surface-waters of the Atlantic,
impel them along the shores of Portugal, Spain and
France, whence a large portion passes through the
English Channel into the German Ocean. But
another large portion, turned northward by the pro-
jecting point of Cornwall, finds itself in a vast funnel,
between the Irish and English coasts, which has two
terminations, the one open and leading into the
North Sea, the other closed and confined within the
364 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA.
narrowing limits of the Bristol Channel. Each of
these three localities,—the shores of the English
Channel, the Irish Sea, and the Bristol Channel,—
receives its portion of oceanic productions brought by
the winds and currents; but the former two are open
passages, while the last-named, being closed, retains
such as are brought within its boundaries. And the
southern side of the Channel is likely to receive the
greatest part of such deposits ; for the winds setting
them upon the Cornish coast, the current would natu-
rally follow the bending line of the shore; and thus the
rocky coves and inlets of North Devon might be
expected to be more than usually rich in those rare
and accidental stragglers, which the waves bring in
from their roamings in the boundless sea.
So I have proved it. Two new species of Aquorea
I had already found here, a genus of which but one
example had been recorded as British; and I have
now to add a magnificent species of Chrysaora, which,
though not new, appears to be rare on the British
coast. It occurred to me on the 14th of September, at
low water, embayed in a little tide-pool in the rocks
below the Tunnels, where it attracted my attention
by its vigorous and regular pulsations. (See Plate
XXVII, where it is represented about half the natu-
ral size).
The umbrella (fig. 1.) is about three inches in
diameter, depressed and sub-conic in expansion,
hemispheric in contraction, pellucid and nearly
colourless, but tinged about the summit with a deli-
eate flush of rose-colour. The surface is slightly
frosted or tomentose, and studded with a multitude
THE TENTACLES. 865
of minute orange warts, most conspicuous in the cen-
tral parts. About thirty-two fine orange lines radiate
from near the centre, which are lost before they reach
the circumference. The margin is cut into thirty-two
concave ovate lobes, a tentacle being between every two,
with the exception of eight of the interspaces sym-
metrically disposed, where a pedicled ocellus takes the
place of a tentacle. The pair of lobes which inclose
each ocellus are larger than the rest, and are of a rich
sienna-brown; the other lobes are not associated in
pairs, are smaller, and are of a paler tint of the same
warm colour.
The tentacles, twenty-four in number, are all alike :
their substance is pellucid-white with the tips crim-
son; the latter, however, are very liable to be torn
off. Their base can scarcely be called bulbous, but
this part is dilated into an ovate form in ove direction
(viz. that from the centre outward) and thin in the oppo-
site. They are long and attenuated, being frequently
stretched to the length of a foot, and as slender for
most of their length as the finest sewing-thread.
They are waved and contorted in various free and ele-
gant curves, but are never drawn up into spiral coils;
their contraction, which is sometimes so great as to
reduce them to an inch in length, being effected
entirely by the shortening and thickening of their
substance. They are very adhesive, but I did not
find in them any power of stinging.
The eyes, eight in number, are minute oval bodies,
opaque yellowish-white, each placed at the tip of a
rather long, slender footstalk, depending perpendicu-
arly from the margin of the umbrella, and protected
366 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA.
by a tubular fold of the common pellucid membrane,
which extends to about double its length. (See fig.
2). On crushing one of these eyes with graduated
pressure beneath the microscope, it was most interes-
ting to find its substance entirely composed (so far
as I could perceive) of an infinite multitude of regu-
lar colourless crystals, the greater number of which
were short six-sided prisms, and, as I thought, with
convex extremities. (See fig. 3). Of this latter
point, however, I am not quite sure; but their hex-
agonal form was perfectly distinct; and I could not
but conclude these to be true visual lenses, perhaps
as perfect as those of Crustacea or Insects. Their
diameter was about ath of an inch.
The sub-umbrella agrees in general form with the
umbrella, but is much more depressed. From its cen-
tre depends an ample globose peduncle, which after
being constricted, terminates in four membranous
arms of excessive delicacy and beauty. Each arm
consists of a cylindrical, or rather insensibly tapering,
process, resembling a tentacle in length and slender-
ness. All along ove side of this filament is attached
a ribbon of pellucid membrane, more delicate than the
finest cambric: it is upwards of an inch wide above,
but gradually tapers to a point; and is so attached by
one of its edges to the filament, as to fall into ample
folds or furbelows, exactly like the flounces of a
muslin dress. The grace and beauty which these
appendages impart to the animal can scarcely be
imagined by those who have not witnessed a similar
spectacle. Sometimes, indeeed, they are contracted
into a shapeless mass, only two or three inches in
ITS CRUSTACEAN PARASITE. 367
length, so puckered and confused as to render their
disentanglement apparently hopeless; but in a few
moments we see their graceful folds, all separated,
stretching their taper length to a distance of ten
inches from their base, and waving slowly through
the water with every contraction of the ever-pulsating
umbrella. The colour of these elegant organs is
white at their upper part; but a faint tinge of rose-
red becomes perceptible about their middle, and
gradually increases in intensity till it becomes at
their extremities a decided pink. ‘This hue, however,
seems in some way to be dependent on the will of the
animal, frequently becoming stronger or fainter in the
course of a few minutes.
The interior of the peduncle is divided by four
perpendicular septa into as many ample chambers,
which are visible from above. Other folds of mem-
brane partially cross their area, causing them at times
to appear six or more in number. From beneath,
large round openings are seen communicating with
the interior of these chambers, into which the sur-
rounding water is thus freely admitted.
Whatever other purposes these cavities may fulfil in
the economy of the Medusa, they serve the conveni-
ence of another animal of widely different organiza-
tion. A little shrimp-like creature, about half-an-inch
in length, with large lustrous green eyes ( Hyperia
medusarum), makes these chambers his residence,
dwelling in them as in so many spacious and commo-
dious apartments, of which he takes possession, I am
afraid, without asking leave of the landlord, or paying
him even a peppercorn rent. There however, he
368 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA.
snugly ensconces himself, and feels so much at home,
that he is not afraid to leave his dwelling now and
then, to take a swim in the free water; returning to
his chamber after his exercise.
That this is the natural habit of life followed by
this Crustacean, I have no doubt. There were three
or four specimens on this Chrysaora, and I have
found it parasitic on other large Meduse. But there
were also on the one I am describing a vast number
of minute white specks, which on examination proved
to be little Crustacea, and, as I suspect, the larvee of
this species. They are not larger than a grain of
sand, shaped somewhat like a toad, with the abdomen
distinctly separated, narrow, and bent abruptly under,
in the manner of the Brachyura. (See Plate XXII.
fig. 15).
To return, however, to our Medusa. Though this
genus is described as peculiarly phosphorescent, I
found this specimen scarcely at all luminous. A
vety slight and dull flash or two was all that I could
obtain, with repeated pushings and other disturbances
of the animal in the dark.
The appearance of this fine Medusa in captivity
was noble and imposing. I kept it for several days
in a deep glass vase of clear sea-water, where its
chestnut-lobed umbrella, throbbing with a continual
pulsation, throwing its circle of hanging tentacles
into a succession of serpentine undulations, and its
long four-fold fringe of gauze-like flounces, floating
through the water, formed a sight which the beholders
were never weary of admiring, and from which we
could scarcely withdraw our eyes. Its pulsations
THE FURBELOWS. 369
were perfectly regular, leisurely, and energetic; yet
their effect in moving the body seemed feeble and
laborious ; every stroke, for example, raising the disk
an almost inappreciable distance, when it wished to
ascend from the bottom to the surface; forming a
marked contrast to the minute but agile Zwurris
neglecta, which shoots at every contraction a distance
three or four times its own diameter.
The Chrysaora does not rest at the surface as some
Meduse do; but occasionally allows itself to sink
slowly to the bottom, where (or but slightly elevated
above it) it intermits for a while its laboured con-
tractions. |
The furbelows, as well as the tentacles, are organs
of prehension, used for the capture of prey. I have
some reason to believe that the former, at least near
their origin, perform an active part in digestion:
Casually touching the animal with a stick, not only
did several of the tentacles entwine round it, but the
furbelows also presently adhered to it, partially em-
bracing it; and I became conscious that the latter
were drawing the stick towards the peduncle with
considerable force; nor was it an easy matter to
liberate it from the firm grasp. This circumstance
suggested the thought that the animal might be
hungry, especially as it had been in my possession
several days without food.
I determined therefore to give it a dinner; and, that
there might be wanting no incentive to appetite, one
which a prime minister would not have disdained—a
Whitebait dinner. I had just before netted in a tide-
pool, half a dozen of these brilliant little fishes; and
370 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA.
one of these I devoted to my experiment, and the
Medusa’s appetite. The fish was already dead, and I
had no difficulty in guiding it so that it might touch
the tentacles. These were immediately, as I had ex-
pected, entangled around the fish, and so were the
furbelows. At first I was not aware that anything
more was going on, for the weight of the fish had
carried it to the bottom of the vessel, and the delicate
membranes were lying in confused heaps over it.
After some time, however, I perceived that the fish
had moved from that part of the furbelows which had
first seized it; for whereas at first not more than
half-an-inch lay between that part of one of the fur-
belows which embraced the head of the fish, and its
extremity, the head was now several inches higher up
towards the peduncle. This induced me to watch it
closely. The tentacles had now no part in the matter ;
having delivered the prey to the furbelows, they had
disentangled themselves, and were now sprawling
loosely about, as usual. Three of the furbelows had
grasped the fish; one embracing the head, another
the tail, and a third the middle of the body; the
fourth had not touched it at all, and the middle one
presently relinquished its hold, resigning the task to
the other two. These embraced their respective parts
in the most curious manner ; not being twined about
merely, but the fleshy membrane adhering to the
surface of the fish, filling every hollow, and rounding
every projection of its burden, so closely as to manifest
not only the sensitiveness, but also the muscularity,
of these filmy organs.
It was easy to perceive the constant though slow
ITS MODE OF TAKING PREY. ol
progression of the fish upward ; the surface of the
furbelow, with its closely adhering plaits and pucker-
ings, being moved over the fish, with an uniform
eliding, like that of the foot of a mollusk over the
surface on which itis crawling. The crustacean larve
already spoken of, like minute white specks scattered
about the furbelows, enabled me distinctly to mark
the advance of the fish, which proceeded at the rate
of about a line in a minute. The contractions of the
umbrella went on with the usual force and precision
during the whole time; and as the fish was gradually
brought nearer to the umbrella, the furbelows acquired
the power to lift it from the bottom, and to suspend
it between them in a horizontal position.
After two hours had elapsed from the first seizure,
the fish was brought to the mouth of the peduncle,
about half-an-inch above the separation of the furbe-
lows; and where it remained, without any further per-
ceptible change, for a full hour. The head of the fish
alone was so much elevated as this, for the furbelow
at the tail had latterly ceased to act, while the other
had proceeded ; and consequently the fish had become
nearly perpendicular. Its head was closely embraced
by the lips of the peduncle, and the peduncle itself
was protruded in a remarkable manner, by the partial
inversion of the umbrella, the upper surface of which
was slightly concave, though the margin was bent
over, and continued its contractions.
At length, after about an hour, the Medusa slowly
relinquished its prey, which fell again to the bottom.
To my surprise, however, I could not discover, on
examination, that the digestive efforts of the Chry-
372 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA.
saora had produced the least alteration in the appear-
ance of the fish; the surface of which was as clean,
and its edges as smooth and well defined, as they
had been three hours before. Yet I would not hence
too hastily conclude that no nutriment whatever had
been extracted bythe pores of the stomachal membrane.
It seemed possible, too, that the weight and unwieldy
dimensions of the fish may have disappointed the
animal of its expected feast; and that a smaller
morsel might have been more completely inclosed.
Acting on the last suggestion, I offered to the
Chrysaora, a day or two after the above experiment,
a piece of cooked meat about half-an-inch square. It
was caught by the furbelows, and slowly passed up to
their base, where it was closely embraced for several
hours. I know not how long it remained there, but
the next morning I found that it had been received
during the night into one of the four cavities, into
which the peduncle is divided. It was visible through
the pellucid integuments from above, and without any
intervening substance from below, through the oval
aperture of the chamber, which was not closed upon
it. Here it remained two days and nights, being ~
dropped to the bottom in the course of the third eve-
ning. J examined the morsel; it was white from the
long maceration, but was not decomposed, nor sur-
rounded by any mucus, as are the rejecta of the
Actinie, &c.; nor had it the least putrescent smell, a
circumstance which appears to me to prove that a
true digestive process had operated on it. or if the
morsel had lain in the water for that time, it would
undoubtedly have become offensive, whereas the gas-
EVERSION OF ITS UMBRELLA. 373
tric fluids are known to have an antiseptic power in
the Vertebrate animals.
After I had kept this Chrysaora for about a week
its manners underwent a change. It no longer swam
about freely in the water by means of its pumping
contractions, nor was its appearance that of a um-
brella. It began to turn itself inside out, and at
length assumed this form permanently, its shape
being that of a very elegant vase or cup, with the rim
turned over and the tentacles depending loosely from
it, the furbelows constituting a sort of foot. The
latter were new put to a new use: the animal began
habitually to rest near the bottom of the vessel, or
upon the broad fronds of Jr7de@a, which were growing
in the water and preserving its purity; but occasion-
ally it would rise midway to the surface, and hang
by one or two of the furbelows. A fold or two of the
latter would come to the top of the water, and dilate
upon the surface into a broad flat expansion, exactly
like the foot of aswimming Mollusk; from this the
Medusa would hang suspended in an inverted position.
All the other furbelows, and the parts of this one that
lay below the expansion, floated as usual through the
water, except that, on some occasions, an accessory
power was obtained by pressing a portion of another
furbelow to the side of the glass, and making it ad-
here, just like the part that was exposed to the surface
air. The texture of the furbelows when thus stretched
smooth was exquisitely delicate.
The eversion of the sub-umbrella was connected
with the maturing of the ovaries. I had observed
that in T'urris the development of the ova was inva-
K 2
O74 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA.
riably accompanied by their protrusion, and the
shrinking up of the umbrella; and in the case of this
Chrysaora, I found the ovaries assuming a greater
size and opacity. They formed frill-lke expansions
spread around the interior of the four stomachal cham-
bers, and now began to protrude from the oval
apertures in convoluted masses. A portion of one of
the protruding masses I cut off with fine scissors,
and submitted it to a magnifying power of 220
diameters.
The mass consisted of a plexus of gelatinous tubes,
very numerous, not a single one many times convolu-
ted, for the rounded and closed ends of many were
traceable, though [ could not follow any one to its
other extremity, except where cut off by the scissors.
They moved and twisted about, gliding along like so
many worms, by means of the cilia with which their
surface was clothed. I could not indeed see the cilia
themselves, but the uniform currents that swept the
floating atoms along left no doubton this point. The
diameter of the tubes was not equal, but varied from sa
to _— inch; and their walls were rather thick. In
the mass were scattered a great number of globose.
ova, of granular texture, and yellowish-brown hue ;
the most mature of which were about — inch in dia-
meter, but others were much smailer, and pellucid in
the ratio of their immaturity. None appeared to have
a clear nucleus. Some of the ova were certainly
within the tubes, and though the greater part appeared
to lie free among the convoluted mass, and a few
were loose in the water, I am inclined to attribute
this entirely to the tubes having been cut across by
DEVELOPMENT OF THE OVA. B75
the scissors, causing the escape of the ova. Such as
were quite loose gave indication of being ciliated, in
that they had a feeble spontaneous motion, a quiver-
ing oscillation.
A week afterwards (October 2nd) I again examined
the ovaries: the one that most protruded was more
opaque, of a creamy hue. With a lens I perceived
that the free ends of many of the tubes were project-
ing, and hanging down like a short fringe of threads,
with blunt tips. I again cut off and isolated a por-
tion in a watch-glass. The appearance was much
changed since I examined it last. The tubes, which
had the same vermicular motion as before, and were
similarly convoluted, were greatly swollen in irregular
parts, and contained many ova much more developed
than before. These were clear globules, yet evidently
granular, varying from a to ang inch in diameter. I
soon found that they were escaping from the ovarian
tubes, (not however, from the free ends, which were
slender and contained no ova); and after the severed
fragment had remained a night in the watch-giass a
great number, of varying sizes, were found on the
bottom, moving about.
Some of these I examined with a power of 300
diameters, Each was a soft globose body, not quite
regular, nor even fixed in form, of a clear brownish
hue, composed of a great number of irregular granules
ageregated together, which projected from the gene-
ral outline; as if a handful of roundish pebbles from
the shore had been agglutinated by some invisible
cement into as good a ball as you could make of such
materials. ‘The globule revolved in all directions on its
376 THE RED-LINED CHRYSAORA.
centre, and progressed slowly through the water, with a
quivering jerking motion, exactly like that of many of
the compound Monads. \I could not detect the cilia
which produced this motion, but infer their existence.
On pressure being applied to flatten the globule, each
component granule was seen to be itself composed of
a multitude of minute granules. The pressure being
heightened the primary granules at length separated
from each other, leaving for an instant angular chan-
nels between them, which appeared to be occupied
with a very subtile gelatinous fluid; and presently
these granules themselves yielded to the pressure,
and dissolved each into a vast number of pellucid
secondary granules of almost inappreciable minute-
ness.
On submitting to pressure portions of the tentacles,
I found the walls rather thick in proportion to the
tubular cavity, and moderately densely studded with
filiferous capsules of great minuteness. ‘Their form
was perfectly oval, the smaller end being that from
Wee the thread projected. The fess were about
Pn inch in length, the smallest about —— 00 Weh, with.
the thread occupying an oval cavity about two-thirds
of the entire volume. The eee thread from one
of the largest reached to about => inch, or more than
a hundred times the length of ihe capsule; those of
many os the smallest on the other hand were not more
than ;> inch in length, or about eleven times that of
the canna: I could not see the least appearance
of barbs, hairs, or imbrications on the threads
(fig. 4. represents a large capsule, magnified 300
diameters),
ITS DEATH: ona
The capsules of the furbelows do not differ in size
or appearance from those of the tentacles; they are
however distributed in groups, consisting of from
thirty to sixty, large and small capsules together ;
these groups form the minute white specks that are
seen dotting the whole surface of these organs. None
were seen in the ovaries.
Notwithstanding this armature, the species appears
to have no stinging power appreciable to our senses.
I passed the back of my finger, where the skin is very
sensible, over the surface of both tentacles and fur-
belows. They adhered, indeed, to my skin, but no
sensation of stinging was felt, nor any other unplea-
santness.
This Medusa lived about three weeks in a glass
vase, and died at the end of that time what I may
call a natural death; that of exhaustion from the
discharge of ova. Reproduction, as is well known, is
the great object of existence, in many of the inverte-
brate animals, and also its closing act. It may be
so with this Medusa.
In the mean time I found another specimen, closely
agreeing with the former in appearance, but slightly
smaller, —floating in one of the nooks of the harbour
of Ilfracombe.
The species is doubtless the Cyanea chrysaora of
Cuvier’s Regne Animal (Edit. 1836); of which a
figure, not very accurate, is given in plate xlvil. ‘The
editors refer it to Chrysaora cyclonota of Peron and
Lesueur. It was first described by Borlase in the
Nat. Hist. of Cornwall; and his description and
figure are quite recognisable.
378 THE WHITE PELAGIA.
THE WHITE PELAGIA.
Two days after the capture of the Chrysaora, I
obtained, in the bathing-pool near the same spot, a
species of Pelagia. The disk is about an inch wide.
The projecting lobes of the umbrella give it, when
expanding, a hexagonal form. ‘There are eight eyes,
as in the preceding species; but only the same num-
ber of tentacles, instead of twenty four; these organs
are white. The peduncle divides into furbelows pro-
portionally lower down, and the furbelows themselves
are much more simple, and extend only to about two
inches in length. ‘The ovaries are not purple, nor
are the tentacles or the disk tinged with rose-colour ;
the whole animal being colourless, except for the
whiteness which arises from the imperfect trans-
parency of the membranes. The umbrella, however,
is studded with minute and scarcely perceptible red-
dish warts.
Messrs. M’Andrew and Forbes have described and
figured (Annals N. H. 1847, p. 390) a species of
Pelagia (P. cyanella), which they met with on the
Cornish coast. It is possible that the animal above
described may have been a very young specimen of
the same species; though the differences are great,
not only in size and colour, but also in form and pro-
portions. The umbrella in their P. cyanella forms
almost a perfect globe, but in my individual less than
a hemisphere, resembling in shape that of the Chry-
saora (See Plate XX VII.) It would be rash, however,
to constitute a species on a single specimen; and
hence I leave the matter for future investigation.
THE MANTIS SHRIMP. 379
THE MANTIS SHRIMP.
One can never take a living specimen of that beau-
tiful zoophyte Plumudlaria cristata, without finding
its numerous pinnated branches inhabited by curious
Crustacea of the genus Capredla. They are as much
at home in the tree-like zoophyte, as a family of
monkeys in their arboreal bowers, and indeed their
agility as they run from branch to branch, catching
hold of a twig just within reach and pulling themselves
in an instant up to it, then stretching out their long
arms in every direction, strongly remind me of the
Spider Monkeys of South America. One needs little
systematic knowledge to see that they are highly pre-
datory: a glance at their form and manners would
reveal that fact. Strange spectre-like creatures they
are! or rather skeleton-like ; with long slender bodies
composed of few joints, and wide-sprawling limbs set
at remote, distances. And such limbs! Two pairs of
stout antenne bristled with stiff spines project from
the head, then the first and second pairs of legs, (but
especially the latter,) have the last joint but one de-
veloped to a great size, while the terminal joint is so
formed as to shut down upon it just as the blade of a
clasp-knife does upon the handle. Then to add to
the efficiency of this instrument of prehension, the
great joint which represents the haft is armed with
a double row of spines set at an angle so as to make
a groove, into which the blade falls, and this latter is
cut along each side of its edge into fine teeth like
those of a file. I find several species even on the same
380 THE MANTIS SHRIMP.
small fragment of weed, if it be tolerably well peopled
with Plumularie or Pedicelline, some much larger
than others, and beautifully mottled with transparent
ruby-colour on a clear horn, and distinguished by
variations in the relative size, in the shape, and in
the armature of these formidable weapons ; and there
is a species larger still, of a dull purplish-red hue.
But all have pretty much the same manners, except
that the smaller species are more agile.
These manners are excessively amusing. The
middle part of their long body is destitute of limbs,
having instead of legs two pairs of oval clear vesicles,
but the hinder extremity is furnished with three pairs
of legs armed with spines and a_terminal-hooked
blade like that already described. With these
hindmost legs the animal takes a firm grasp of the
twigs of the polypidom, and rears up into the free
water its gaunt skeleton of a body, stretching wide its
scythe-like arms, with which it keeps up a see-saw
motion, swaying its whole body to and fro. Ever
and anon the blade is shut forcibly upon the grooved
haft, and woe be to the unfortunate Infusorium,
or Mite, or Rotifer, that comes within that grasp.
The whole action, the posture, the figure of the
animal, and the structure of the limb are so closely
like those of the tropical genus Mantis among in-
sects, which I have watched thus taking its prey in
the Southern United States and the West Indies, that
I have no doubt passing animals are caught by the
Crustacean also in this way, though I have not seen
any actually secured. The antenne, too, at least the
inferior pair, are certainly, I should think, accessory
ITS STRANGE MANNERS. 38]
weapons of the animal's predatory warfare. They
consist of. four or five stout joints, each of which is
armed on its inferior edge with two rows of long stiff
curved spines, set as regularly as the teeth of a comb,
the rows divaricating at a rather wide angle. From
the sudden clutchings of these organs, I have no
doubt that they too are seizing prey; and very effect-
ive implements they must be, for the joints bend
down towards each other, and the long rows of spines
interlacing must form a secure prison, like a wire-cage,
out of which the jaws probably take the victim, when
the bending in of the antenne has delivered it to
the mouth.
But these well-furnished animals are not satisfied
with fishing merely at one station. As I have said
above, they climb nimbly and eagerly to and fro,
insinuating themselves among the branches, and
dragging themselves hither and thither by the twigs.
On a straight surface, as when marching (the motion
is too free and rapid to call it crawling) along the
stem of a zoophyte, the creature proceeds by loops,
catching hold with the fore limbs, and then bringing
up the hinder ones close, the intermediate segments
of the thin body forming an arch, exactly as the
caterpillars of geometric moths, such as those for
example that we see on gooseberry bushes, do. But
the action of the Crustacean is much more energetic
then that of the Caterpillar. Indeed all its motions
strike one as peculiarly full of vigour and energy.
I have seen the large red species swim, throwing
its body into a double curve like the letter S, with the
head bent down, and the hind limbs turned back, the
3882 THE CADDIS SHRIMP.
body being in an upright position. It was a most
awkward attempt, and though there was much effort,
there was little effect.
THE CADDIS SHRIMP.
On sub-merged tufts of that seaweed that is sold in
a dry state under the name of Carrageen moss
(Chondrus crispus), 1 have found in considerable
numbers a Crustacean resembling in many points the
Caprella, but belonging to another order of this great
Class. Without perhaps actually confining itself to
this particular species of weed, it seems to affect it
more than any other. Not, however, that you would
find it on those ample tufts of Chondrus that grow in
shallow rock-pools exposed at half-tide, the fronds of
which glow at their tips with the most refulgent
reflections of steel-blue. It must be sought at ex-
treme low-water, about the sides of rocks that are laid
bare only at the spring tides of March and September,
and the alga itself will be masked under a crowd of
Laomedee, Sertularie, Anguinarie, Pedicelline, and
other parasitic zoophytes, and half covered with a
thick coat of dirty floccose matter, the ejecta, as I
suppose, of these creatures.
Among these, and assisting to conceal and meta-
morphose the plant, you may find a number of conical
tubes varying from a to —th of an inch in length’
made of a somewhat tough papery or leathery sub-
stance of a dusky colour and of a rough surface.
They are stuck upon the fronds of the sea-weed in all
directions, without any order, some laid along, others
ITS WEAPONS. 383
standing erect; sometimes singly, sometimes asso-
ciated. From the open extremity project two pairs
of stout jointed antenne, both of which are armed on
their under edge with double rows of spreading spines,
like those of the interior antenne in Caprella. These
well-armed organs are affixed to a large oval head just
in front of two black eyes, and are thrown about
incessantly, forcibly clutching at the water, or rather
at whatever may be passing in the water, just as
described above in the kindred and companion species.
The head ordinarily just projects from the mouth of
the tube sufficiently to see what is going on without,
and what prospect there 1s of a successful throw, but
sometimes the creature protrudes his first two pairs of
feet. These, especially the second pair, have a great
oval joint at the end, (See Plate XXII, fig. 13) with
a sort of knife-blade shutting on it, all formed on
the same model as in Caprella, but the next two
pairs of limbs have the middle joint curiously de-
veloped into a large projection on the upper side (Fig.
14). Three more pairs of legs follow, long, hooked
at the end, and directed backwards, and the body,
which is arched downwards like that of a shrimp, has.
three pairs of swimming bristles, and terminates in
two styles. Butall these latter details can be seen
only by opening the tube with a couple of needles,
and extracting the lurking inhabitant; when you
may place him in the live-box of your microscope and
examine him at leisure (See fig. 12).
The animal in its tube much resembles the larve
of the genus Phryyanea, that anglers value under the
name of Caddis-worms. ‘There, however, the case is
384 THE TINY OCEANIA.
composed of a mosaic of minute pebbles, bits of shell,
&c., imbedded in a glutinous silk with which the
interior is smoothly lined. In our little Crustacean,
IT do not know of what it is made, or how, but it
seems to be homogeneous, and is certainly of home
manufacture, and not the tube of a zoophyte surrep-
titiously obtained, as has been supposed to be the
case with the Cerapus tubularis of North America.
Perhaps, however, closer examination might refute
the charge of piracy brought against that species.
Our little animal is somewhat longer than its tube,
or from = to ~ inch in length. It belongs to the
genus Cerapus as restricted, but appears to differ
from either of the species hitherto recognised as
British : I therefore propose to call it C. Whitei, after
my esteemed fmend Mr. Adam White of the British
Museum.
MEDUSZ.
A single specimen occurred in my dip-net the other
day of a very tiny Medusa, which I cannot certainly
identify, and which I hardly know how to apportion
to its proper generic place. It has some resemblance
to the lovely little Modeeria formosa, but the number
and arrangement of its tentacles seem to point out
the Oceaniade as its allies. I do not see the con-
spicuous muscular bands which would indicate it as a
Turris, and I shall therefore call it an Oceania. I
describe it in the following terms. (See Plate XIII,
ne. Tt):
Oceania pusilla. Umbrella mitrate, constricted
w
BUSKS THAUMANTIAS. 385
above the middle, with the summit rounded, + inch
in height, (Fig. 11). Margin with about on) shan
tentacles, springing from globose, yellowish bulbs,
each of which carries a red ocellus within. (Fig.
14). The tentacles are usually contracted, and bent
upwards. (Fig. 12).
Sub-umbrella nearly as large as the umbrella; from
its centre depends an ample membranous peduncle,
somewhat vase-shaped, but seen vertically to be four-
lobed, each lobe pyriform in transverse section, the
small ends meeting around a minute square central
space. (Fig. 13). These lobes are marked with de-
licate veins, as if the structure were irregularly cellular,
and are tinged with yellow. The greater part of the
peduncle is occupied by the ovaries, four in number,
altogether somewhat pear-shaped, the larger end below,
and filling the peduncle; they are of an opaque yellow,
and each contains a nucleus of dark red. The whole
descends into a flexible many-lobed lip, the extremities
of which are puckered up, and slightly fimbriated.
This minute species was energetic in swimming, shoot-
ing several times its own length at each contraction.
I have found also on two or three occasions a small
Thaumantias, with the following characters. (See
Plate, X XAT... Rigs. to, 11;:)
Umbrella when young, globose when older, hemis-
pheric, or shallow-campanulate, “like a Chinese hat,”
(Forbes) from sth to th inch in diameter, trans-
parent, colourless. The margin fringed with about
thirty-two tentacles ; these are very slender, and exten-
sile, occasionally reaching to four or five times the
L 2
386 BUSK'S THAUMANTIAS.
diameter of the body; their tips adhere with force to
other substances, and moor the animal: their bulbs
contain a yellow undefined nucleus. A colourless
ocellus between each tentacle-bulb and the next.
(Figs 7):
Sub-umbrella moderately high, with a narrow veil.
Ovaries small, oval, around the radiating vessels ;
each with a yellowish nucleus; one was lengthened
and constricted in the middle; and one was wanting.
In others the ovaries contained globular ova with clear
centres in various degrees of development. (See figs.
9 and 10).
Stomach small, quadrangular, almost colourless,
with thickened edges not frimbriated. (Fig. 8.) Ra-
diating and circular canals very slender.
The tentacles vary much in number, sometimes
eight in each quadrant, at others not more than five:
some of the bulbs are often small, without filaments,
and as if developing. Sometimes two ocelli are be-
tween one pair. An ocellus occasionally has two
spherules in it. |
This little creature, which is very active in captivity,
has occurred about the shore in the neighbourhood of
Ilfracombe. TI have little doubt that it is the species
which forms the subject of a valuable memoir by Mr.
Busk, in the Transactions of the Microscopical Society.
(Vol. 11., p. 22.) I would therefore propose to dedi-
cate it to that gentleman, under the appellation of
Thaumantias Buskiana.
The length to which the tentacles of the Meduse
can be extended is very great. I have seen those of
this little Thaumantias about an inch long, though
THE FAIRYS CAP. 387
the bell was only one line broad; and yet the tentacle
was even. then corrugated, and seemed capable of
almost indefinite prolongation. What is curious, too,
is that they were stretched perpendicularly upward,
and not pendent.
THE FAIRYS CAP.
The elegance and beauty of the smaller Meduse
have been celebrated by poets and naturalists, and
have sometimes excited the latter to use the enthusi-
astic phraseology of the former. Here is a tiny
species, which I venture to think any one looking at
it, or even at the magnified figure of it in Plate XX VI,
will not hesitate to pronounce one of the gems of the
sea, though I will not presume to back it against that
lovely atom, of which Professor Forbes affirms that
“there is not a Medusa in all the ocean which can
match it for beauty.”
I have met with only a single specimen of the
species, which was taken in a rock-pool near the
Spout- -holes at the base of Capstone-hill, on the 29th
of August. The following characters distinguish it.
Saphenia Titania. Umbrella somewhat pear-
shaped or campanulate, the summit round, and
crowned with a largish cylindrical cap of colourless
membrane, sometimes falling into folds, but capable
of enlargement by inflation. (Fig. 8). Itis connect-
ed with the sub-umbrella, which is parallel and
almost equal with the umbrella in all its dimensions.
From it depends a parallel-sided peduncle reaching
about two-thirds down the bell, composed of four
388 THE FAIRY'S CAP.
lobes, and terminating in four lips slightly expanded,
not fimbriated. The margin of the sub-umbrella
bears, at the points where two of the four radiating
vessels enter the circular canal, two tentacles with
very large and thick bulbs; the filamentous portions
can be produced to twice or thrice the length of the
bell, but are more frequently coiled up or contracted,
or both. -The other two radiating vessels have a
small oval bulb or swelling with a yellowish nucleus at
their termination; and between each of these and the
bulbs of the true tentacles, there are three smaller swell-
ings almost obsolescent, of which the middle one is a
little more developed than the others. (Fig. 9). A
rather wide veil borders the margin inwardly, which
is alternately sucked in and blown out at each vigo-
rous contraction of the umbrella. The lower half
of the umbrella is wrinkled transversely.
The whole animal is transparent and colourless,
except the peduncle, which is wholly of a delicate
lemon-yellow; and the tentacles, whose thick bases
are of arich purplish crimson, gradually fading to a
carnation tint on the filaments. ‘The whole animal:
is very minute, being only a inch in height (Fig. 7) ;
but the richness of its hues makes it conspicu-
ous under a lens, especially in the sun's rays,.and
when viewed with a dark background.
Its little fairy-cap, and its beauty, suggested the
name of the ‘faery queen’ for its specific appellation.
Its motions are vigorous, shooting by long leaps
through the water by means of its contractions, at
each of which the floating particles are forced in a
jet out of the bell.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Maritime Bristle-tail—Its Nocturnal Habits—Discovery of
its Retreats—Its Companions—The Scarce Polynoe—Its
Armoury of Weapons—A rocky Bay—Romantic Incident—
Chivalrous Self-sacrifice—The Tunnels—Crewkhorne Cavern
—The Torr Cliffs—Precipitous Path—Torr Point—Solitude—
The Scarlet and Gold Madrepore—Scene of its Discovery—
Description of the Species—Its Microscopical Structure—The
Stony Skeleton—Thread-Capsules of Actinia—The Club-
bearing Medusa—Entanglement of Air—Structure of the
Tentacles—The Eyes.
THE MARITIME BRISTLE-TAIL.
Lingering one evening on the ledges of grey rock
below the promenade on Capstone Hill, I accidentally
learned some particulars in the economy of the
Machilis. It was at the north-west corner, where a
broad shelving slope affords standing room, and
where a rude seat presents accommodation for visitors,
who resort to the comparative seclusion of the spot,
to watch the glories of the setting sun, or the first
flash from the light-house on the summit of distant
Lundy.
Just about the time when all objects but those im-
mediately around were becoming indistinct in the
advancing darkness, I perceived some little moving
specks on the white rock, and stooping down to get a
better view, I saw that they were insects, which were
running nimbly about in great numbers, and which
390 THE MARITIME BRISTLE-TAIL.
leaped away whenever I attempted to lay hands on
them. With some difficulty I succeeded in taking
two or three, by slapping my hand suddenly down
upon them, and crushing them. Having brought
home my captures in that improvised collecting-box,
that every entomologist finds need now and then to
resort to,—a scrap of paper screwed up at both ends,
—TI found that they were the same little active crea-
tures that I had met with before, Machilis maritima.
I visited the spot the next day, but could not dis-
cover a single individual: at the approach of night,
however, they came out as before by hundreds. I
suspected therefore that night was the proper season
of activity for these insects ; and that during the day
they would probably be found secreted, in the nume-
rous fissures, with which this slaty rock abounds.
Accordingly I took an early opportunity of examin-
ing the place, furnished with a hammer and chisel.
It was as I anticipated. On my detaching a loose
fragment of the slate, I disturbed about a score of the
insects, varying in size,—the old parents shining in
all the lustrous radiance of their scaly coats, and their
hopeful family of all ages clustering round them in
duller raiment. A large heap of eecta showed that
the fissure had been their regular and constant dwel-
ling. Not that the place however was confined to
them; for several of the amphibious marine Woodlice
(Lygia oceanica) were hiding there, and there were
also some half-dozen of the tailed and horned pu-
pa-cases of a two-winged fly, in one of which I
found the perfect insect nearly ready for expulsion,
but dead and dry. They were of the species named
THE SCARCE POLYNOE. 391
Eristalis tenax, that bee-like fly, that is so very
common in every garden in the latter part of the
summer, hovering motionless over the flowers for
several seconds, and then shooting suddenly away to
hover again in like manner. Its association here with
the Machilis and the Oniscus was a rather curious
circumstance.
POLYNOE IMPAR.
Sept. 27th—In turning over stones at low water
on the outside of the harbour, I found an Annelide,
which appears to be the rare species described by Dr.
Johnston (Ann. N. H., Feb. 1839) by the name of
Polynoe impar. It is not more than half-an-inch in
length, and to the naked eye presents nothing con-
spicuous or worthy of special notice, but submitted
to microscopical examination it proves highly curious,
The kidney-shaped shields with which the back is
covered, and which are detached with slight violence
(though not quite so readily as those of P. cirrata),
are studded over with little transparent oval bodies,
set on short footstalks; the intermediate antenne, the
tentacles, and the cérri of the feet are similarly fringed
with these little appendages, which resemble the glands
of certain plants, and have a most singular appear-
ance. If we remove the shields, we discover on each —
side of the body a row of wart-like feet, from each of
which projects two bundles of spines of exquisite
structure. The bundles expanding on all sides re-
semble so many sheaves of wheat, or you may more
appropriately fancy you behold the armoury of some
belligerent sea-fairy, with stacks of arms enough to
392 A WORMS ARMOURY.
accoutre a numerous host. But if you look closely at
the weapons themselves, they rather resemble those
which we are accustomed to wonder at in Missionary
museums, the arms of some ingenious but barbarous
people from the South Sea islands, than such as are
used in civilized warfare. Here are long lances made
like scythe-blades set on a staff, with a hook at the
tip to capture the fleeing foe and bring him within
reach of the blade. Among them are others of similar
shape, but with the edge cut into delicate slanting
notches, which run along the sides of the blade, like
those on the edge of our reaping-hooks. These are
chiefly the weapons of the lower bundle ; those of the
upper are still more imposing. The outmost are short
curved clubs, armed with a row of shark’s teeth to
make them more fatal; these surround a cluster of
spears, the long heads of which are furnished with a
double row of the same appendages, and lengthened
scymetars, the curved edges of which are cut into
teeth like a saw. Though you may think I have
drawn copiously on my fancy for this description, I
am sure if you had under your eye what is on the
stage of my microscope at this moment, you would
acknowledge that the resemblances are not at all
forced or unnatural.* To add to the effect, imagine
* Tt was not until after I had penned the above sentence that I met
with the following remark in Andouin et Milne Edwards’ “‘ Littoral
de la France”’ (ii, 40). Speaking of the bristles of the Annelides
generally, these learned zoologists say,—‘ Leur usage nous a été d’au-
tant plus facile 4 comprendre que nous avons retrouvé dans ces petites
armures les modéles exacts des diverses formes que homme a su
donner, avec calcul, a ses armes de guerre, pour les rendre plus re-
doubtables et pour assurer leur coups; il n’en posséde certainement
pas de mieux adaptées a ce but que celles dont sont pouryues certaines
Annélides.”’
A ROCKY BAY. 393
that all these weapons are forged out of the clearest
glass instead of steel; that the larger bundles may
contain about fifty, and the smailer half as many,
each, that there are four bundles on every segment,
and that the body is composed of twenty-five such
segments; and you will have a tolerable idea of the
garniture and armature of this little worm, that grubs
about in the mud at low-water mark.
The spot where I found this Annelide is invested
with a melancholy interest, from its having been the
scene of a romantic incident that proved fatal to one
of the actors in it. Let me bring before your mind
the locality.
Tf at low water you descend the steep flight of steps
from the north-east corner of Capstone Promenade,
you will find yourself in a wilderness of rocky boulders,
through which, partly by climbing over their slippery
masses, partly by winding round and between them,
you may pick your way eastward. After a little while
you come to a part where the precipitous coast recedes,
with a wide but shallow curve, to some distance from
the water’s edge. The whole area bristles with pointed
rocks, except a narrow inlet or cove of coarse sand
that runs up obliquely from the north-west to the foot
of a wall of stone, which has been built up to the
height of thirty feet, where the cliffs failed. This is
the yard-wall of several of the houses that stand on the
quay and face the harbour; and from a door at its
summit, a triple zigzag flight of rude steps, the lower
range of which is cut out of the living rock, leads to
the beach. An iron rail at the top, almost eaten
through with rust, tells that the beating of the sea is
394 ROMANTIC INCIDENT.
no stranger even at this height; and if you were to
take your stand on these steps when the tide is in,
you would look out on a wide bay of clear water, the
margin of which would be washing your feet. On
your left hand a projecting bluff mass of rock, jutting
out from the harbour-head, forms the western boundary,
or, if you please, you may consider the more imposing
Capstone itself as the boundary, and this only as a
projection into the curve of the bay, which then you
must draw with a wider outline. Away to your right,
you see the verdant summit of Lantern Hill, crowned
with an ancient building that was once a Popish mass-
house, helping to diffuse spiritual darkness, but now
makes some amends by exhibiting a nightly light to
guide mariners to the harbour-mouth. In the rugged
side of the cliff you see a cavern, in which, during a
brief shelter from a passing shower, L made these
notes of the locality. :
Four or five years ago the large house from which
these steps descend was temporarily occupied by two
ladies of rank, one of whom, among other accomplish-
ments not very common to her sex, was distinguished
as an expert and fearless swimmer. She was accus-
tomed to plunge from these private steps when the
water was high, and swim out to sea, over yonder belt
of horrid rocks, in all weathers. On the occasion I
speak of, a morning in autumn, she had boldly, nay
rashly, sought her favourite amusement, though a gale
of wind was blowing, and the foaming sea was break- |
ing in furious violence almost to the very top of the
wall.
The fishermen ‘and idlers on the quay were just
CHIVALROUS SELF-SACRIFICE. 395
going to their breakfasts, when the sister of the swim-
mer rushed out of the house with a scream of distress.
“A lady is drowning behind! who will save her ?”
was her eager demand, as she passed one young man
after another. None replied, for the weather was
tremendous; till a poor shoemaker offered himself.
“‘T’1l save her, if I can,” said he; and he followed her
swiftly through the house and yard to the head of
the steps.
There indeed was the lady still bravely breasting
the rolling waves; she had taken her outward range,
and was returning, but the rebound of the sea from
the cliffs was so powerful that she could not come in
to the steps; her strength too was failing fast, and
it failed all the faster because she was thoroughly
frightened.
The young cordwainer, throwing off his coat and
shoes, and taking a rope in his hand, leaped at once
into the waves, and being himself a skilful swimmer,
he quickly reached the drowning lady. He managed
to pass the noose of the cord round her, by means of
which she was presently drawn up by other men who
had congregated on the steps. “Take care of the
poor man!” was her first exclamation, even before
her own feet had touched the firm ground. But “the
poor man” was past their care; he had saved her life
chivalrously, but it was with the sacrifice of his
own.
As soon as he had secured the lady’s hold of the
rope, he sought the shore for himself, but scarcely
had he swam half a dozen strokes, when the specta-
tors on shore beheld his arms suddenly cease their
396 THE TUNNEL ROCKS.
vigorous play and hang down; his legs too sank into
the same pendent posture, and his head dropped upon
his breast with the face submerged. Thus he con-
tinued to float for a short time, but moved no more.
He had been subject to occasional swooning fits, from
a severe blow which he had received on the head some
time before; and his brother, from whose mouth I
received these details, conjectured that one of his at-
tacks had suddenly come upon him, his pre-disposi-
tion being perhaps aggravated by his having gone out
without having broken his fast.
The tide soon carried the body away out of sight;
efforts were made as soon as practicable to recover it
by dragging ; and it was once hooked and brought to
the surface, but before it could be hauled into the
boat it sank again, and it was not till more than a
fortnight after that it was found at Comb-Martin,
some five miles to the eastward.
Nothing could exceed the distress of the lady at
the death of her courageous deliverer; for awhile she
appeared inconsolable, and the effect of the whole
transaction is said to have been a permanent melan-
choly. Her gratitude was shown in providing for the
widow and children of her benefactor, who continue
to this day her pensioners.
THE TUNNEL ROCKS.
On a coast where the sublime and the awful almost
everywhere are characteristic, where the scenery gene-
rally is such as the savage genius of Salvator Rosa
would have revelled in,—there are some parts where
CREWKHORNE CAVERN. 397
these characters are more than ordinarily prominent.
The beach stretching away from the Tunnels on either
hand, but especially that to the westward, is a scene
which every lover of the picturesque cannot but ad-
mire. The Tunnels themselves, pierced through the
solid rock, at an enormous expense of labour and
money, to give access to the beach, are an object of
curiosity, and the visitor, as he traverses these long
sepulchral corridors, finds in their chilliness and dark-
ness a not inappropriate prelude to the wild solitude
of the shore below.
In one place the excavation of the tunnel has
broken into the roof of Crewkhorne cavern, and the
visitor, as he walks across a bridge of logs, passes
over a gloomy den, which tradition affirms, perhaps
without much foundation, to have afforded a tempo-
rary shelter to De Tracy, when first he sought a refuge
after the assassination of Becket. Overwhelming in-
deed must be the terror which would impel a man to
hide himself in such a place as this; for though it is
a lofty cave, with an ample mouth, the interior is
frightfully desolate; the sea closes the entrance at
every tide, and at springs must wash up almost, if not
quite, to the very extremity.
The Ladies’ Bathing Pool, a lake partly natural
partly artificial, and the beaches and coves where
gentlemen enjoy the same luxury, are just before and
around this cavern, and these spots are during the
summer generally frequented by visitors. But I prefer
to wander on towards the westward, beneath the pre-
cipitous Torrs, clambering over the huge angular
spurs that jut out here and there from the base of the
M 2
398 A PRECIPITOUS PATH.
cliff, to enjoy the solitude and the magnificence. Far
overhead, around the summits of the peaks, the busy
and clamorous daws are flying, and the wailing cry of
a gull issues now and then from some of the fissures
with which the cliffs are rent. Perhaps the tide is in,
and the wavelets are rippling on the shingle, or the
green arching billows are dashing up with thundering
roar. Perhaps the tide is out, and from the beach
extends a broad area before the water's edge is reached,
a wilderness of boulders and masses of rock of all
forms and dimensions. As we proceed, the shore be-
comes more and more rugged, the strewn masses be-
come larger, and are piled on one another in yet
wilder confusion, until at length further progress is
stopped by a lofty promontory that projects into the
sea so far that no spring-tide leaves its base uncovered.
Yet, if the visitor have nerve for the enterprise, he
may ascend to the top of this ridge; for there is a
flight of steps, very narrow, shallow, and slippery,
cut in zigzag lines up the face of the precipice, now
passing over a slender archway of rock, but just wide
enough for the foot, then climbing the edge of a sort
of steep sloping ridge or wall by long steps, with no-
thing on either side but the thin air, and the points
of rock far below. I have ascended and descended
two or three times, but never without a shuddering
coldness as I came to these parts, and an emotion of
thankfulness when they were passed. Yet the pros-
pect from the summit, the access into still more se-
cluded coves and bays beyond, and the exhilaration
always felt at a considerable elevation, make the ascent
worth the risk. Besides that, there 1s in most persons
SOLITUDE. 399
a sort of appetite for hazard, the excitement itself,
the pleasure of daring and of surmounting danger,
being a sufficient remuneration.
The promontory is Torr Point, that Jong narrow
slope of green turf which I have already described, in
a walk by which it is attained from above. The
projection and the elevation combine to afford the
beholder a wide-spread range of prospect from its
height, a prospect of sublime features.
This district of the coast, including not the Point
only, but the bays and margining rocks on either hand,
was one to which I chiefly delighted to resort; the
rather because in its rugged recesses, the particular
objects of my scientific inquiries were found in rather
than ordinary profusion and variety.
To sit on rocks, to muse o’er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest’s shady scene,
Where things that own not man’s dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne’er or rarely been ;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold ;
Alone o’er steeps and foaming falls to lean ;—
This is not solitude ; tis but to hold
Converse with Nature’s charms, and view her stores unrolled.
CuitpE Haroxp ii. 25.
THE SCARLET AND GOLD MADREPORE.
Sept. 16th.—A very distinct species of Madrepore,
and one of great beauty, I discovered to-day. It was
spring-tide, and the water receded lower than I have
seen it since I have been here. I was searching
among the extremely rugged rocks that run out from
400 THE SCARLET AND
the Tunnels, forming walls and pinnacles of danger-
ous abruptness, with deep, almost inaccessible cavities
between. Into one of these, at the very verge of the
water, IT had managed to scramble down; and found
round a corner a sort of oblong basin about ten feet
long, in which the water remained, a tide-pool of three
feet depth in the middle. The whole concavity of
the interior was so smooth that I could find no resting
place for my foot in order to examine it; though the
sides all covered with the pink lichen-lke Coralline,
and bristling with Laminarie and zoophytes, looked
so tempting that J walked round and round, reluctant
to leave it. At length I fairly stripped, though it
was blowing very cold, and jumped in. I had exam-
ined a good many things, of which the only novelty
was the pretty narrow fronds of Flustra chartacea in
some abundance, and was just about to come out,
when my eye rested on what I at once saw to bea
Madrepore, but of an unusual colour, a most refulgent
orange. It was soon detached by means of the ham-
mer, as were several more, which were associated with
it. Not suspecting, however, that it was any thing
more than a variation in colour of a very variable
species, I left a good many remaining, for which I
was afterwards sorry. All were affixed to the perpen-
dicular side of the pool, above the permanent water-
mark; and there were some of the common Caryo-
phyllia associated with them.
The new species may be at once recognised by its
brilliant colours. The whole of the body and disk,
exclusive of the tentacles, is of a rich orange, yellower
in young specimens, almost approaching to vivid
Walto re
del &
‘
&
:
GOLD MADREPORE. 401
scarlet in adults, especially when contracted, for dis-
tension not only pales the hue, but causes the yellow
element to be more apparent. ‘The tentacles, about
fifty in number, in my largest specimens, are of a fine
gamboge-yellow. They are not terminated by a
globose head, but are conical and obtusely pointed.
When closely examined, indeed, the representative of
the globular head may be recognised in the smooth
rounded point, but it is not larger than the parts
below, nor is it preceded by any constriction, nor dis-
tinguished from the other parts byits colour. Under
a microscope the tentacle is seen to be diaphanous
and colourless, but studded, like those of C. Smithiz,
with transversely oblong warts, which have a tendency
to run in oblique lines; these warts give the colour,
being of a fine yellow; and the rounded extremity of
the tentacle is composed of a number of these warts
aggregated into one. The tentacles are proportionally
much larger than in C. Smithit, and fewer.
The animal is smaller than C. Smithii, the largest
specimens I have seen being about 4 inch in diameter
in the body, and rather more than } inch when the
tentacles are expanded. All that I have seen are
circular in outline, and not oval, which is the most
common form of Smithit. The plates are never visi-
ble, in any degree of contraction, the red flesh lying
as a thick cushion over them, even when all the ten-
tacles are withdrawn.
The mouth protrudes in the form of a high conical
proboscis; this, though of course subject to some
variation in form, appears highly characteristic of the
species. The orifice is small, of the common colour,
402 THE SCARLET AND
and does not form a conspicuously crenate white
lip.
There is no coloured star on the disk, the orange
hue running up around the bases of the tentacles as
in an Actinia. Narrow radiating ridges from every
tentacle meet in the centre. Indeed the resemblance
to an Actinia is far more close and striking in this
new species than in C. Smithit. ‘The cylindrical body
is somewhat furrowed.
Minute microscopical examination revealed differ-
ences between the two species more remarkable than
any above-noted. All the red parts are clothed with
vibratile cilia, but the tentacles, which in C. Smitha
we have seen to be so furnished, are here entirely
destitute of them. The ciliary currents flow down the
sides of the body, but wp the conical proboscis from
the whole circumference of the disk, passing off out-
ward from the mouth. The whole tentacle is covered
with short motionless hairs, and not the tip only.
The warts on the tentacles, when subjected to high
pressure, appear to be oval vesicles or sacs of clear
gelatinous fluid, in which float many yellow pigment-
granules, which are of a varying figure, generally
more or less drop-shaped, with a sinuated outline, and
one end drawn out. These warts appear also to be
the chief seats of the filiferous capsules: these are not
very numerous, oblong, and almost linear in form,
varying from saath to ath inch in length, and send-
ing forth a filament about thirty times the length of the
capsule; one that I measured reached to send inch.
Those of the convoluted ovaries agreed in all respects
with these.
GOLD MADREPORE. 403
If any additional evidence were wanting to show
that this species approaches much nearer the Actinie
than C. Smithii does, it would be found in the stony
skeleton. This is very different in appearance from
that of the kindred species, and is manifestly rudi-
mentary. When the soft parts have been carefully
removed by several days’ maceration in fresh water,
and the gelatinous matter all cleared away from the
stony plates by a slender stream of water allowed to run
upon it from a height, a vertical view shows the following
arrangement :—First, at the very margin there is a
narrow circle of white calcareous plates, smal] and
very irregularly anastomosing, so as to resemble in
miniature the honey-combed limestone rock that we
find around Torquay and elsewhere. In the centre of
the cavity, there is another loose spongy mass of
similar irregular plates. Eighteen perpendicular radi-
ating plates extend between the marginal circle and
the central mass, arranged in six threes, so as to make
a six-rayed star. The order of each trine series is as
follows: the middle one is the thickest and shortest,
reaching scarcely more than half-way from the cir-
cumference to the centre. On each side of this there
is a longer thinner plate, neither parallel nor converg-
ing towards the centre, but diverging at a small angle,
so that each of these lateral plates meets the lateral
plate of the next trine series, at a point consider-
ably short of the centre, whence a plate sometimes
goes to the central mass. The arrangement will be
better understood by a reference to Plate XXVI, fig.
6, which represents a quadrant of the circle, much
magnified.
404 THE SCARLET MADREPORE.
The plates are all very rough, with irregular pro-
jections and erosions. They do not rise in an arched
outline above the level of the margin, but the whole
surface is concave. I have described and delineated
what appears to be the normal arrangement, though
this in fact is adhered to in different degrees of pre-
c1sion.
The form of the calcareous skeleton identifies this
interesting addition to the British Corals with the
genus Balanophyllia of Mr. Searles Wood; a fossil
species of which has been found in the Crag. The
royal colours in which the present species is arranged
—scarlet and gold—suggest the specific name of regia.
The distinctive characters of the skeleton may be thus
summed up.
Balanophyllia regia —Corallum cylindrical or sub-
conic, fixed by a rather broad base. Four cycles of
septa. Cup circular, much depressed. Plates not
rising above the border; much crenulated, and rough-
ened with grains. Margin thin, distinct. Columella
strongly developed, spongy. Epitheca investing, to
the edge of the cup ; beneath which extend low ridges,
close-set, rough, and geniculate.
I afterwards found the same species in considerable
number, especially during the very low springs of the
October new moon, among the rocks off the Tunnels,
all in the vicinity of the spot where I found the first.
They were always in the same circumstances, crowded
into colonies ; one little cavity, just large enough to
turn in, containing perhaps a hundred, speckling the
walls with their little scarlet disks, near extreme low
water. Not one that I took presented the least varia-
THE THICK-HORNED ANEMONE. 405
tion from the characters I had jotted down already ;
but one specimen had adhering to its base two very
young ones, one about a line in diameter, the other
not more than one-third of a line. Examination with
a lens revealed no difference either in form or colour
between these and the adult; the condition of their
skeleton is unknown, as I did not choose to destroy
the infant specimens.
Plate XXVI, fig. 1 represents the Scarlet and Gold
Madrepore expanded ; magnified.
Fig. 2. The same of the natural size, contracted.
3. A tentacle, greatly magnified.
4. A tentacle of Caryophyllia Smithii, for
comparison.
5. Filiferous capsules.
THREAD-CAPSULES OF ACTINIA.
I have been dissecting a fine specimen of Actinia
crassicornis. ‘The interspaces of the abdominal septa
I found filled with the ovigerous tubes, so-called.
When examined closely these are seen to consist of a
narrow ribbon, about half a line in width, convoluted
and puckered in a very irregular manner, but having >
a tendency to form spiral turns, of a whorl, or a whorl
and a half, each; the ribbon itself being nearly flat,
and one of its edges being the axis of the spire. The
ribbon consists of two parts; a yellowish-brown mass
occupies the portion next the axis, for about three-
fourths of the breadth; the remaining fourth is an
exterior border of pellucid substance. I placed some
of the whorls under the microscope, and observed the
406 THREAD-CAPSULES.
external edge beset with a fringe of delicate vibratile
cilia, by whose constant action not only were the
floating atoms in the water hurled in a rapid and
regular current along the edge, but the spires of
ribbon themselves were made to swim through the
water, principally with a slow gyratory motion, suffi-
ciently perceptible even to the naked eye.
On subjecting some of the whorls to the compresso-
rium, an immense number of yellowish granules were
discharged from the brown part, while the pellucid
border displayed the filiferous capsules in considerable
number, pointing towards its outer edge. They are
club-shaped, or almost fusiform, with one end the
larger, varying from _ to a5 th inch in length; the
contained thread occupies a slender linear cavity,
extending about two-thirds through the length, and is
thence continued as a line of almost invisible tenuity.
(See Plate XXVIII., fig. 17.) When the thread is
forced out by pressure, it sometimes extends to = or
even = of an inch. The basal portion of the thread,
for a length about equal to that of the capsule, is zig-
zagged, and each angle of the zigzag is furnished
with a short bristle, projecting in the direction of the
joint from which it springs. There are about four or
six angles, the first being removed a little from the
tip of the capsule. (See fig. 19).
The capsules of the tentacles are much smaller,
being from a to a th inch in length, and more pro-
perly linear than any I have yet seen. (Fig. 18). I
could not force the ejection of the thread.
In the ribbed coriaceous skin that surrounds the
mouth, the capsules are the most developed of all,
THE CLUB-BEARING MEDUSA. A07
bothin size and numbers. ‘They are pretty uniformly
about a inch in length, with the linear cavity reach-
ing more than 3ths of the total length. (Fig. 20.)
Multitudes are scattered loosely in the mucus that is
copiously discharged from the surface, and many
appear to be irregularly distributed in the coriaceous
tissues; but others are crowded into groups, whence
the threads are projected in dense brushes, to the length
of about a line, or thirty-three times that of the
capsule. I observed in most of the evolutions, of
which I witnessed a great many, that the filament was
not projected with the rapid suddenness observed in
many cases, but with comparative slowness, and by
degrees; the tip being gradually lengthened, most
commonly in a long spiral. In every instance that I
could note the fact, the bearded part at the bottom
was first projected, and was perfected before the
length of the thread proceeded beyond that extent—a
convincing proof that the process is one of evolution,
and not of simple propulsion.
THE CLUB-BEARING MEDUSA.
Thaumantias? Corynetes. (Plate XXT.)—Um-
brella about {th inch in height; bell-shaped ; trans-
parent; colourless. (Fig. 1, magnified ; 2, nat. size).
Sub-umbrella, rather more than two-thirds as high
as the umbrella, campanulate or sub-conical ; margined
with a narrow scolloped veil. Ovaries elliptical,
about the outer half of the four radiating vessels, ir-
regularly ventricose, reaching to the marginal canal.
Their substance, in one that I examined, was com-
408 THE CLUB-BEARING MEDUSA.
posed of delicate polygonal cells (fig. 7), without any
developed ova.
‘Tentacles twenty-four, arranged in sigh bundles of
three each, at the points of junction of the four radi-
ating vessels, and midway between them. One in
each group 1s minute and rudimentary (fig. 4); the
others are peculiar in form; they arise from conical
bulbs set in twins close together, with a nucleus of.
dark red pigment in each; they are at first slender,
but swell towards their termination into a thick ovate
or fusiform club, surrounded by from sixteen to forty
thickened rings, which are close or remote according
to the degree of contraction of the tentacle. They
are generally carried divergent, with a sigmoid
curve.
The marginal canal carries about the same number
of (visual or) auditory capsules as of tentacles; they
are perfectly globular, hyaline, each with a single
spherule. They are arranged three between two —
eroups of tentacles, but not quite symmetrically.
(Figs. 3 to 5 represent a group of tentacles, with their
ocellated bulbs, and capsules.) |
Peduncle small, ovate, with a neck, and slightly en-
larged extremity ; the outline seen vertically is qua-
drangular: it terminates in a thickened lip, pucker-
ed and obscurely four-fold. The whole is pellucid
flesh-coloured, viewed by transmitted light; but in
the sun’s rays the basal part is of a lively yellow-green
and the lips bright rose-pink. (Fig. 6.) It does not
seem very mobile or extensile.
I have called this curious species Corynetes, from
the resemblance of its tentacles to loaded clubs or
ITS MANNERS. 409
war-maces, in allusion to that hero of the Ihad who
was so named,— .
“For that he combated and burst his way’
Through the firm phalanx, armed with neither bow
Nor quiv’ring spear, but with an iron mace.”’
ll. vii. 143.
Its peculiarities may perhaps warrant its separation
from Thaumantias, especially the form of the peduncle,
and the gathering of its tentacles into groups, which
reminds us of the genus Lizz7a.
I took the first specimen on the 6th of September, by
dipping at the outside of Warphouse Point, that forms
the western boundary of the harbour of Ilfracombe.
Its motions were lively in captivity. The thick ten-
tacles are probably adhesive, for I had repeatedly to
clear them of extraneous matter, which they dragged
about with them. It occasionally rested on the bottom
of the vessel, back downward, with the tentacles
lengthened to thrice the diameter of the bell, radiating
in all directions, and lying on the bottom, motionless
except that the terminal part of every one was con-
tinually vibrated in little jerks. It had thus a pecu-
liar and curious appearance.
Sept. 25th—I dipped three more at the Tunnel
Rocks, one a little larger than the above, but none
presenting any difference of character from it. The
subsidiary tentacle in each group of three was less
disproportionately small in these specimens.
The smaller Meduse, when dipped and deposited in
the collecting jar, are apt to be more or less covered
with minute air-bubbles, adhering to the surface of the
; N 2
410 AIR-BUBBLES.
umbrella, to the interior, to the margin, to the ten-
tacles ; in short every part 1s sometimes studded with
these little sparkling globules. ‘This is especially the
case with those dipped, as the specimens just named
were, among the rocks, where the sea breaks and boils;
and I suppose the air, which the waves take under in
breaking, is entangled in the viscidity of their gelatin-
ous coats. The effect is not only to hinder the exa-
mination of the animals, but will soon be fatal to them,
for the air-globules act like so many floats, keeping
the Medusa at the surface, and preventing its free
swimming.
The best way that I know of to get rid of these
pretty but annoying spangles, is to push the Meduse
forcibly under water with a biteof stick or a glass rod,
striking them gently when deep under the surface.
Every blow dislodges some of the globules, which
rise and disperse ; by repeating this process you may
rid the animal of its floats and enable it to swim at
ease again. I do not find that the pushing about
hurts them; though it frightens them a little, and
causes them to pump with redoubled energy.
Oct. 6th.—I obtained several more specimens by
dipping at Warphouse Point on a sunny afternoon in
a heavy gale and sea, when nothing else occurred ex-
cepta solitary T'wrris neglecta. ‘The species appears,
more than other small Meduse, to be tolerant of
rough weather.
On examining the tentacles with a high power, I
find that the thickened rings are well-defined annular
swellings of the gelatinous substance,, in which are
imbedded the filiferous capsules, to the number of
STRUCTURE OF THE EYES. 4b
fifty or more in each ring, the interspaces being free
from them. (Fig. 8.) The capsules are notregularly
arranged. They are minute egg-shaped bodies, with
a cavity of similar form towards the larger end, which
I presume to contain the projectile thread. (Tig. 9.)
But owing to the minuteness of the capsules, their
longer diameter not exceeding oot of an inch, the
plates of the compressorium would not act upon them
so as to effect the propulsion of the filament in a
single instance that I could detect, even with many
trials.
The secondary or small tentacles have not in general
the capsules disposed in regular rings, but only a few
scattered throughout, with the exception of their tips
which are composed of a globose dense assemblage of
these organs. A few are scattered through the sub-
stance of the peduncular stomach.
The visual organs (fig. 5) are from 3 t0 sth inch
in diameter. They appear to be composed of gelatin-
ous matter, with a central oval cavity about ath
inch in diameter, in which at one end is a globular,
highly refractile, crystalline lens, about ath inch in
diameter. On graduated pressure being applied, the
vesicle is seen first to flatten, then the cavity; but
when the plies of the compressorium act on the lens,
it breaks into pieces like a crystal, and usually with
a fracture that radiates from its centre. The frag-
ments do not differ in appearance from the entire
spherule.
CHAPTER XVII.
Various Effects of Light on Scenery—Ode to Light—The Sabella
—Its Tube—Its Crown of Plumes—Fatal Attack—Discovery.
of more Specimens—Laborious Mode of Procuring them—
The Young—Reproduction of the Crown—The Corynactis—
A low Spring-tide—The Tunnel Rocks—Discovery of the
Species—Its Form, Structure, and Colours—Manner of taking
Food—Thread-Capsules—Their elaborate Structure—Propul-
sion of the Thread—Identification of the Species—The Pur-
ple-spotted Anemone—Its Locality and Manners—Its Form
and Colours—Thread-Capsules—Nature of these Organs—
Systematic List of Zoophytes—Conclusion.
LIGHT:
How much of the charm of scenery depends upon
an element, which, if we have never accustomed
ourselves to analyse our sensations and the causes of
them, we may be apt to overlook, or at least not
consciously recognise! I mean the diversity that is
produced by the different degrees and combinations
of light and shadow. How different the same scene
looks at different times of the day, and in different
states of the weather! The edge of a grove in full
foliage, when looked at on a cloudy day, is not at all
the same thing as when the sun-light falls slantingly
on it, bringing out masses of rich bright green, and
throwing intervals into black shade. There is the
EFFECTS OF LIGHT. 413
broad side of Capstone Hill] visible from my window ;
all through the day, indeed, it is a fine object, though
only a mass of brown rock with a grassy top; but
sometimes, just as the sun is setting, his red rays
falling full upon the precipitous side, illuminate it
brilliantly, and communicate to its ample surface a
rich rosy hue most beautiful to behold; but as trans-
ient as charming; for we have scarcely uttered an
involuntary ejaculation of surprise, before the old
dusky appearance is put on again.
The sea, again ;—how many of its changing aspects
depend on the lights that fall on it! On a bright
sunny day, its sparkling, glittering, ripples break up
the soft blue surface with tiny rays, like a plain of
sapphire inlaid with diamonds. Fleecy clouds appear
in the sky, and communicate a new feature to the sea
below; for their dark shadows flit along and chase
each other over the surface, in patches of grey or
green of various shapes and sizes.
Look upon it in a calm summer's evening. How
gloriously. it reflects, as from a mirror, the flood of
soft lustre in the western sky, and the sun itself
sinking down that glowing path, like a shield of
burnished gold! Watch till the fiery King has sunk
to rest, and the burning glow begins to soften and to
fade. How vividly do we see repeated below—
The canopy of eve
That overhung the scene with gorgeous clouds,
Decaying into gloom more beautiful
Than the sun’s golden liveries which they lost.
MONTGOMERY.
Take it in another condition. The sky is overcast
a
Aj4 EFFECTS OF LIGHT.
with clouds, with breaks here and there in the grey
smoky canopy. Out seaward the horizon is of a dark
purplish-blue tint, then indigo, blending into a bljue-
green, and this into a dull leaden hue. But there is
a wide patch just beneath the place of the sun, where
the rays fall through an opening in the clouds on the
sea, in form like an inverted fan; the water just there
is a flood of light, in which the ripples sparkle and
quiver as if thousands of silvery fishes were every
moment leaping up. All round, the surface presents
only the dull lead-colour, rendered more obscure by
the contrast of this spot of lustre. Ships and smaller
craft are scattered about the distance; one and another
is suddenly illuminated by one of the streams of light
falling on the spot where each happens to be; her
sails, which before were scarcely distinguishable from
the grey sea, in a moment become beautifully white and
conspicuous. Just as a Christian, on whom the light
of God’s countenance rests, is bright and happy, while
his fellows walking in comparative darkness, remain
dull and covered with clouds.
These and other examples of the potent influence
of light have often recalled to my mind a poem which
was given me many years ago in Newfoundland. -It
was from the pen of a young clergyman, a native of
the island, the Rev. Joseph Clinch. I possess it in
manuscript; whether it has ever been published I
know not, but in my judgment the beauty of the
thoughts and the elegance of the versification are
worthy of perpetuity. If the gifted author still
survives, he will, I trust, pardon me for enriching my
pages with some of the stanzas.
LIGHT. 415
ODE TO LIGHT.
Joy of the Universe sublime !
Thy beams have lit the waves of time,
E’er since the Almighty’s hand
With worlds unnumber’d spangled space,
And urged them on their rapid race,
A bright and glorious band.
Yet ’twas not with the splendid sun,
That thy bright being was begun ;
For ever hath thy ray
Of glory canopied the Throne
Of the Eternal Three in One
In one unceasing day.
.
’Twas not when Night in fear beheld
A brilliant universe impell’d
Through all her wide domain,
And fied in panic from her post,
Before that grand and glittering host,
That wide and mighty train ;
It was not then thy being bright
First flash’d to view, O favouring Light !
Not then commene’d thy race ;
For God is light, and Heaven would be
No Heaven, fair beam, depriv’d of thee,
No envied resting place.
When Night’s dark curtains were unfurl’d,
And robe-like wrapp’d the new-born world,
And, on the wrathful deep,
Slept in a dark and grim repose,
Until that mighty voice arose
Which bade thee burst their sleep ;—
How grand, how glorious, was the sight,
When thou awok’st, triumphant Light,
Upon that curtain’d sea,—
Pour’d forth the ocean of thy rays,
And wrapp’d all Nature in the blaze
Of thy divinity !
And now, although the stream of years
So long hath roll’d, thy beam appears
As fair, as pure, as bright,
416 LIGHT.
As when the joyous Ocean gave,
To meet thy smile, his first-born wave
With foaming mantle white :
Yes ! now thou art as fair to view—
When o’er the morning billows blue
By zephyr gently toss’d,
Or o’er the mountain’s misty side
Thou pour’st the splendour of thy tide—
Fair Light! as then thou wast.
e
Most glorious Light ! how glad thy ray
To him who treads a trackless way
Through forests wild and high :
When Night displays no planet’s gleam
To cheer him with its dubious beam,
And bless his anxious eye !
Or when, upon the midnight wave,
(His vessel’s and his comrades’ grave, )
The sailor braves the sea,
And, grasping some precarious hold,
Prays, with his wild eye heavenward roll’d,
For safety and for thee.
And glorious art thou, when thy rays
Play on the prisoner’s startled gaze,
Dejected, sunk, and wan ;
When, from the dungeon and the chain,
Freedom to thee and life again
Restores the wretched man ;
Or when upon the couch of woe
Sickness, with many a bitter throe
And dim and wakeful eye,
Counts the long night, and raptur’d sees
Thy first ray touch the dewy trees,
And gild the casement high.
® * *& * =
THE SABELLA.
Oct. 12th.—Peeping into a little crevice of an over-
hanging ridge at Hele, within the fissure that leads
THE SABELLA. ah
up to the curious Perforated Rock, I saw a tube pro-
jecting, just beneath the surface of the water, about
1} inch long. I could just get my arm into the
crevice, and feel the tube with my fingers; it resembled
both in consistency and appearance half-boiled maca-
ron. I thought it was a sponge, and tried to pull it
off; unfortunately I could get only one hand in, and
so could not work with the hammer and chisel. But
by loosening some of the lamine of the shale with my
fingers, I managed to expose the tube for several
inches lower down, and at length detached it by pull-
ing. The lower part was membranous, of a clear
reddish-brown colour, and angular. Again looking
into the obscurity of the hole, for I could only look
and work by turns, | saw in the now turbid water
what seemed a noble white Actinia, with expanded
tentacles. I now felt again with my fingers, and
presently pulled away a couple of inches more of the
membranous part of the tube; still it did not occur.
to me to connect it with the actinia-looking creature,
which I could still dimly see in the muddy water.
By feeling carefully I got hold of the animal, and
haying worked my fingers down as close to its point
of attachment as possible, I pulled it away, and put
my prize into the glass-jar of ciear water. O what a
magnificent creature! I thought, as I gazed delighted
upon it, that it excelled in beauty any of the marine
animals I had yet found. It proved to be a Sabedla,
and, as I believe, the S. vesiculosa of Montagu.
It was a large stout worm, beset along each side
with little bundles of satiny bristles, closely packed in
pencils, of a golden colour. There was no proper
418 THE SABELLA.
head, but the anterior extremity was furnished with
two ample fans of many plumes, each fan having
one side curled spirally inward, and the pair forming
an exquisite funnel-shaped appendage, inclosing two
beautiful volutes of the same. The expansion of this
elegant organ was fully an inch and a half, and the
length of the plumes but little less. The latter were
bearded with short vanes of extreme tenuity, and
reminded me of those feathers of the bird of Paradise,
that are worn in ladies’ head dress. Their colour was
white and maronne-brown, in broad alternate bands.
This feeble description can afford scarcely any idea
of the elegance of this plumous crown, which seemed
as if it would have well become the head of some
noble cacique, or the lord of one of those isles in the
distant east which are the depositories of earth's most
precious things. Well, I put my captive into my jar,
and was gratified to see the crown expanded, and grace-
fully waving ; notwithstanding that in dislodging the
animal I had unfortunately torn off the hinder ex-
tremity of the body. This, however, I hoped, might be
healed, and reproduced. |
But a disappointment was in store. Presently
afterward, I came across a pool in which several
specimens of Anthea cereus were stretching their
snaky tentacles like so many Medusas’ heads. Wish-
ing to show the species to a friend, I selected one, and
unthinkingly dropped it into ‘the jar which held my
Sabella. The long tenacious tentacles could hard-
ly fail to come into contact with its beautiful plumes,
and I soon saw with vexation that such was the case;
and that several of these organs were entangled around
‘
MORE SPECIMENS. 419
the crown and body of the worm. I did not well
know what to do, but I thought the best thing was to
take both out, and endeavour to pull away the tenta-
cles of the Anthea one by one. While thus engaged,
to my infinite chagrin, the lovely coronet suddenly
came off all in a piece from the body, though pulled
with the least imaginable force. To use a phrase of
the ladies’, ‘I could almost have sat down and cried.”
I did no such thing, however, but put body and head-
dress into another bottle, only, alas! to note the sad
contrast between its now shrunken form, and that
which it had assumed when the life was pervading it,
spreading its graceful curves, opening and closing the
spires, and gently waving every delicate filament.
It has often occurred to me,—so often that I have
wondered at the coincidence,—that when I have found
any thing very rare or curious that I have long vainly
desired to see, I meet with others directly afterwards,
though in circumstances which have no connexion
with the first. It was so with respect to this Sabedla.
The very next day a man who keeps a little shop for
the sale of shells, corals, and other specimens of
natural history, took me to the cove at the back of the
quay, to shew me “asort of barnacles’ that he had
found there. What should these be but a colony of
this very Sabella? When we arrived at the place,
there, in a little hollow about as large as a washing-
basin, were the tubes of some eight or nine clustered
together, and protruding, apparently, from the edges
of the lamine of the shale, for there was no visible
erevice.
We emptied the little basin with our hands, and
420 THE SABELLA.
set to work with hammer and chisel to cut out the
rock around them. The hollow was breast-high in
the side of a great mass of rock, so that it was easy
to work at it; the shale too was fortunately very soft
and friable. In about an hour we had cut away the
surrounding parts to the depth of five or six inches,
when the lamine of the shale came away piecemeal,
with the tubes adhering by the side to them. The
membranous matter, of which the tubes are formed,
and which is, I have no doubt, an exudation from the
skin of the animal, was spread about upon the surface
of the lamin on each side of the adherent tube.
What was particularly interesting was that some of the
tubes had a family of young ones attached to them.
These were of different ages, and their little slender
tubes were creeping in irregular directions along the
parent tube, from the thickness of a hog’s bristle to
that of a goose-quill. The young tubes are not
straight, but bent at various angles, adherent to the
parent for the greatest part of their length, but free
at the anterior extremity, where a tuft of plumes pro-
trudes. The feathery crown does not differ from that
in the adult essentially, but consists of fewer plumes
in the ratio of age, and these are pure white to their
base. The youngest that I can find, inhabiting a
tube about as thick as a bristle, and half-an-inch long,
has a simple brush of five or six filaments, in the
form of a concave fan, the middle plumes being the
longest. Another, with a tube about as thick as a
stout pin, has thirteen, and one, as thick as a wheat-
straw, seventeen plumes, arranged in each case in a
simple funnel-like circle.
REPRODUCTION OF THE CORONET. 421
At the time of preparing this note for the press, the
Sabelle have been in captivity about four months,
more than three of which have been spent in Lon-
don. Some have died, but the others are still
apparently in good health. No increase has taken
place in the young ones, in the number of filaments
in their coronets, nor, so far as I can perceive, in the
dimensions of their tubes. The species is probably
slow of growth and long-lived. The man who shewed
me the group in the rock, had himself known them to
be there for several years past, and they were as large
when he first discovered them as at last.
An interesting circumstance, however, has occurred,
illustrative of the faculty which the creature has of
reproducing its organs. When the specimens were
transferred to London, I found that the confinement
in close jars had been well-nigh fatal to several. Two
were disposed to desert their tubes, but I pushed them
back by gentle force, and these presently recovered,
though their fans were very flaccid at first. Those of
two other tubes, which were attached, side by side, to
the same fragment of rock, did not protrude the fans
at all, and though I watched day by day, it was in
vain, for these beautiful organs appeared no more,
and I concluded that the animals had died.
I did not, however, remove the tubes from the vase
of water, but allowed them to lie week after week upon
the bottom ; remarking all the time, with curiosity,
yet without suspicion of the actual state of the case,
that neither the tubes, nor, as far as I could see, the
contents, showed any tendency to decomposition, nor
did the water become offensive.
O02
422 REPRODUCTION OF THE CORONET.
At length, on the 4th of January, about two
months after the disappearance of the animals, I was
surprised to see issuing from each tube, a new fan-
disk, the filaments very delicate, of a translucent
white, and about a quarter of an inch long, curled at
their tips. Each formed a nearly flat disk, about as
large as a sixpence, divided into two semi-circles, but
without any appearance of the spiral volutes. There
were about twenty-two filaments in each moiety: and
the bases of all formed a ring apparently as large as
the old neck, but this part I could not see distinctly.
The disks of the two animals agreed precisely in ap-
pearance with each other.
It is manifest that each of the tenants of these
tubes,—full-grown animals,—has undergone first the
loss, and then the reproduction of the tentacular disk.
Perhaps the accident which befel the first specimen
that fell under my notice, may be one to which the
species is not unexposed naturally; and hence it is a
merciful provision that an organ so easily lost, yet so
essential, should be replaceable. Dr. Willams, of
Swansea, in his able ‘Report on the British Anne-
lida’ (1852), does not notice this power in Sadedla,
and seems (p. 247) to doubt its existence in the whole
class.
THE CORYNACTIS.
The spring tides of the new moon in the middle of
October this year, were lower than I had ever seen
at Ilfracombe, a circumstance the more fortunate for
me that it was the last opportunity I had of exam-
THE TUNNEL ROCKS. 4293
ining the shores. Large tracts of the rocks were
exposed every day for a week, which I had never be-
fore been able to approach, and my searchings were
rewarded with several interesting novelties. Among
these was the charming little Corynactis Allmannt.
(Plate VIII.)
If the visitor, standing at the mouth of either of
the Tunnels, or at the margin of the Ladies’ Bathing
Pool, look out seaward, he will see that the rocks,
which are low for some distance from the beach, rise
at length into enormous angular masses, the strata of
which project towards the sky in a diagonal direction
from the shore. One of these masses lying far
away to the right, is the Lion Rock, so conspicuous
and remarkable an object in the view from Wilders-
mouth, and from the field-path leading to Hele, when
the tide is pretty well in. The next is separated from
this by a wide space of clear water; and is seen when
you come close to it to be not a single solid rock, but
rather a collection of masses, divided by chasms and
fissures, with deep but narrow inlets running between
them, strewn with boulders and gravel. It was down
at the water's edge in one of these inlets, as I was in-
tently examining the beetling sides of the lofty rock,
that I looked into a shallow cavity into which the tide
was washing. The rock is here more solid than usual,
and the surface, bathed by the sea, has none of that
ragged friable appearance that so characterises its ex-
posed parts. The cavities and projections, though of
various irregular forms, are nearly as smooth as if
wrought by the sculptor’s chisel. They are almost
quite free from sea-weeds, at least where the outline is
424 THE CORYNACTIS.
near the perpendicular ; yet they are not naked, being
encrusted with Flustre, Cellularie, Leprale, Crisia,
Sertularie, and Sponges; and the lower parts are
studded with the elegant Madrepore, Caryophyllia
Smithir.
The over-arching roof of the hollow in question,—
it cannot be called a cave,—was studded over with
scores of what seemed a new Actinia, for as the tide
had left them dry, they were all in a contracted state,
and I had no opportunity of seeing the beautiful
clubbed form of their tentacles that distinguishes the
genus Corynactis. They were, however, much more
tender and soft than the Actinie, so that, though I
had no difficulty in detaching them with the point of
my pocket-knife, their substance yielded so much that
T feared I was destroying them ; especially as under
the irritation they gave out an enormous quantity of
thick, tenacious white mucus, scarcely less consistent
than their own substance.
They were of various colours, but all beautiful. I
will describe them, however, not as I imperfectly saw
them then, hanging from their native roof-tree, but as
I sce them now before me, some five and twenty of
the finest that I selected for preservation, now comfort-
ably established in a saucer of sea-water.
First as to form. When contracted they are com-
monly little flattish warts or sub-conical buttons,
much like Actinie ; but sometimes one will greatly
elongate its figure, swelling at the extremity, somewhat
like a long fig. (Fig. 8.) Sometimes they are very
much. depressed, the surface corrugated, and the out-
line irregularly lobed. (Fig. 9.)
THE TENTACLES. 425
When expanded, the margin of the disk forms a
distinct crenated rim, outside the tentacles, always
brilliantly coloured. This rim is everted in the most
complete expansion, the tentacles spreading over it,
and the disk dilated beyond the diameter of the body.
But a more common state is that of a short cylinder,
the rim upright, and the tentacles crowded in nearly
perpendicular rows, and scarcely projecting over the
edge. (Fig. 10.) The tentacles have exactly the
same form and structure as in Caryophyllia Smithii,
consisting of a rather short thick body tapering from
the base upward, and studded with transversely-oblong
warts, and of a large globular head, diverse in colour
and surface from the body, and covered with a dense
coat of short down. They are arranged in two com-
plete marginal rows, and two incomplete and irregular
discal rows. I counted them in one specimen, and
found the exterior rows to contain twenty-four each,
and the interior about eighteen each; making the
total number eighty-four. In another there were
more than one hundred, and then there were four
compact rows, besides smaller scattered ones on the
disk, so that I feel sure the number and arrangement
of these organs form but insufficient specific characters,
especially since we know that in the Actinie they
increase with the age of the animal.
The oral disk is usually concave, the mouth, how-
ever, rising intoan oblong cone. The disk is marked
as usual with radiating lines. The mouth forms two
projecting lips, which are strongly crenate, like the
edges of a cowry-shell. ‘The whole appearance of the
disk, tentacles, lips, and all, is almost exactly a
426 THE CORYNACTIS.
counterpart of these parts in Caryophyllia Smithii,
so that we can scarcely avoid considering it a nearer
approach than the Actinie to this Madrepore.
In taking food, such as a morsel of meat presented
to it, the Corynactis does not protrude the lips to
embrace it, nor close the tentacles over it, like the
Actinie in general; but dilates the oral orifice slowly
and uniformly until the lips form a circle strongly
crenated, of great width, nearly as wide indeed, as
the entire disk, within which the stomach, like a broad
shallow saucer, is seen, with the coils of ovarian (?)
filaments lying all over its bottom and sides. Into
this gaping cavity the morsel is drawn, and then the
lips gradually contract and embrace it, finally protrud-
ing in a pouting cone.
Now for colours. The most common hue is a pale
and very delicate rose or flesh-colour, with the rim a
brilliant coral-scarlet, or an equally brilhant emerald-
green ; in the latter case, the body is slightly tinged
with lilac. The delicate tint of the body is lost
towards the base, which is of a whitish-brown. ‘The
disk is of the same colour as the body. When the
rim is scarlet, the tentacles are pure white; or rather
the body is pellucid with white warts, and the globose
head is also white. When the rim is green, the ten-
tacle-warts are umber-brown, and the centre of the
head is of the same hue. The size of these varieties
does not exceed, so far as I have seen, a quarter of
an inch in diameter at the base, about one-sixth across
the disk, and about the same in height.
A larger variety, half-an-inch in width of base and
in height, is of a rich sienna-brown, the rim and the
THE THREAD-CAPSULES. 427
lips brownish orange, the tentacle bodies deep umber-
brown, and the globose heads pure white. ‘This has
a very fine appearance.
The filiferous capsules of this little Corynactis (See
Plate XXVIII. figs. 1 to 13) are the largest that I
have yet oe being as long as those of Caryophyllia
Smithii, (<— 309th inch) and twice their diameter. They
are ovate or elliptical, compressed in one aspect (fig.
13), with a little nipple at the anterior end. (Figs. 1,
12, 18). Within the cavity and almost filling it, the
thread is distinctly seen, coiled round and round in a
spiral more or less regular in different individuals.
There is no lozenge-shaped body at the anterior end,
and in correspondence with this lack, we find the
thread when projected to be destitute of a brush of
hairs, and to be of uniform structure throughout its
length. The length of the thread is very great; one
that I measured reached to about ith inch, or about
thirty-seven times that of the capsule. Its thickness
also is distinctly measurable, and I found it =, th of
an inch, equal throughout. Itis marked for its entire
length with diagonal lines, alternating at right angles
to each other, which I presume to indicate a similar
structure of imbricate plates to that observed in Cary-
ophyllia, but set more widely apart. (See fig. 2). By
delicate manipulation aseries of transverse or angular
strie were visible throughout the thread, rather close
together, about four or five to each alternation of the
diagonal imbrications.
Such then is the structure of the larger capsules
and their filaments. These are very numerous, both
in the ovarian bands and in the tentacles. There was
428 THE CORYNACTIS.
much diversity in the manner of the projection of the
thread. In many cases, especially in such capsules
as were found loose in the enveloping mucus, (libe-
rated probably in the act of detaching the fragment
for examination,) the thread was found already shot
to its utmost, when presented to the microscope,
before pressure was applied with the compressorium.
Many under pressure projected it in a moment, and I
invariably found that the imbricate structure could
be made out only in such threads as were thus per-
fectly and suddenly expelled.
But it was quite as common for the thread to shoot
out partially, and by starts, a coil or two at a time
emerging ; and in this case, the projected part appear-
ed thin and shrivelled, with no defined marks, nor
even a distinct diameter. I think the cause of this
imperfect transmission was always some obstruction
lying in the way of the tip of the thread, sometimes
overcome, but often presenting an insuperable barrier,
when the capsule would remain half empty, the an-
terior portion of the coil having disappeared, but the
posterior part remaining unchanged.
A curious proof of the projectile force employed
was by accident presented to me. The tip of a thread
in the act of emission came into contact with a cap-
sule already emptied. It was stayed for an instant ;
but the crystalline wall of the capsule was driven
inward in an indentation, and presently it yielded,
and the thread forced its way in, shooting all round
the interior of the oval cavity.
These capsules, and even their projected threads,
are distinctly visible with a common triple pocket-lens.
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APPENDIX.
Marine Vivaria. (See p. 228, et seq.) Since the former
note was written in September last, on the keeping of
marine animals alive in unchanged Sea-water, I have
continued the prosecution of experiments on the same
subject, with the most gratifying results. Actinie of
different species and other interesting animals, brought by
me from Devonshire, are now living in the highest health
in London, some of which have been in confinement
nearly eleven months.
The following facts may be considered as established.
Marine animals and plants may be kept in health in glass
vases of sea-water for a period of greater or less length
according to circumstances, provided they be exposed to
the influence of light. The oxygen given off by healthy
vegetation under this stimulus, is sufficient for the support
of a moderate amount of animal life; and this amount can
be readily ascertained by experiment.
But another element in the question soon obtrudes
itself. The Actiniz and other animals habitually throw
off a mucous epidermis, and other excretions, which fall to
the bottom of the vessel, or accumulate around them.
The process of natural decay also continually goes on in
the older fronds of the Algze. Here then there is a con-
tinually increasing deposit of organized matter in a
state of decomposition; and after a while the presence of
this substance becomes too manifest in the offensive odour
440 APPENDIX.
which proceeds from the water, especially when it is dis-
turbed, and in the feebleness, disease, and final death of
the animals.
In this difficulty chemistry came to my aid. Professor
Schonbein had proved that phosphorus possesses the
curious property of causing water and hydrogen to unite so
as to form a new compound, the peroxide of oxygen, which
he calls ozone; and that ozone then immediately re-acts
upon the phosphorus, and oxidates it, producing the pecu-
liar light called phosphorescence. In like manner he had
suggested that the luminosity of the sea is dependent on
the particles of organic matter being brought into contact
with the atmosphere. The phosphorus of this organic
matter causes the union of the atmospheric oxygen with
the water so as to form ozone, which immediately oxidates
and destroys it.
What then is necessary but the presentation of the
water, so charged with organic matter, to the atmosphere
in a minutely divided state? This I did, and found the
objectionable qualities of the water at once removed, and
my difficulties vanished. I even took sea-water, contain-
ing animal matter in suspension, so putrescent as to be
highly offensive, and after passing it through the air in a
slender stream a few times successively, the water was
restored to purity.
Another advantage is secured by the same process,
viz. the aeration of the water. For though the requisite
oxygen may be supplied by the agency of the plants alone,
the mechanical admixture of the atmospheric air with the
water by artificial aeration is highly conducive to the
health and comfort of the animals, as is evident from
their vigour and increased action under its stimulus.
Should any of my readers wish to see these experiments ©
in operation, or to cultivate a personal acquaintance with
many of the individual specimens whose history has been ~
APPENDIX. 44]
recorded in the preceding pages, they may do both by
visiting the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park. The
able and zealous Secretary, D. W. Mitchell, Esq., has
already set up one large glass tank, filled with sea-water,
(the purity of which is maintained in the manner I have just
described,) and stocked with marine plants and animals
so as to resemble one of those charming tide-pools, so often
mentioned in these pages, with the advantage of having its
sides formed of plate-glass, and its whole contents there-
fore clearly visible. There the visitor may see the Sabelle,
the dctime of brilliant hues and many kinds, Mollusca both
shelled and naked, Crustacea, and Annellida, all pursuing
their various avocations and enjoying themselves without
restraint, under circumstances scarcely distinguishable
from those of nature. All who have seen this aquarium
concur in considering it a most attractive exhibition; and
it is fairly anticipated that when seven other tanks of
_ equal dimensions are added to the one already stocked,
each containing some of the numerous tribes of marine
creatures (a result which we hope to accomplish in the
course of a few months), the whole will form one of the
most unique and interesting features of these beautiful
Gardens.
But my attention has been directed to the realization of
such a desideratum as I have before mentioned (See p. 234,
ante) a Marine Aquarium for the Parlour or Conservatory.
An apparatus for this purpose has been for some time in
the manufacturer's hands; and though there are some
minor difficulties attendant on the mechanical part of the
execution, they are not such as to throw any material
doubt on my confident expectation, that in a short time an
elegant vase stocked with algee and sea-anemones, and
comprising within itself the elements of its constant self-
purification, will be before the world.
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GENERAL INDEX.
Acorn Shells, 23; 206.
Aiquorea, (glassy), 340; 345.
(Forbesian), 343; described, 345; luminosity of, 346.
(Forskal’s), 347.
Anemone, (Smooth) ; 9; 10; poetical allusions to, 11; 17.
(Purple-spotted), 430; described, 431.
——_—_—_——(Daisy), 24; 25; difficulty of procuring, 26; change of
its form, 27: description of, 27; varieties of,
31; habits of, 32; 55; structure of, 32.
—————(Thick-horned), 34 ; probably identical with A.coriacea,
36; habits of, 38; cooked and eaten, 150.
———(Rosy), 90.
————(Snowy-disked), 93 ; habits of, 95.
(Snake-locked), 96.
—(Gemmaceous), 108; described, 168 ; young of, 170,
Animals, On keeping in unchanged sea-water, 228; 439.
Animalcules, luminous, 253; parasitic, 260; 291; 359; 367.
Annelida, 10; 94; 172; 275; 391.
Anstey’s Cove, 70; animals of, 71.
Anthea described, 15; habits of, 17; white variety, 18; table
qualities of, 153; stinging powers, 267 ; power of retrac-
tion, 268 ; thread-capsules, 268.
Antiopa, crested, 325; spawn of, 326.
Aquarium, marine, 229; 439.
Ascidia, a transparent ; 241; larva of, 322.
Babbicombe, 5; 11; prospect from, 68.
Barricane, visit to, 322; shell-beach of, 823.
Bathing-pool, 344; 397.
Beach, process of its formation, 266.
Beania, 205 ; 225,
—_——
A44 GENERAL INDEX.
Birds, songs of, 45; 69; 107.
Bloody-field, 327.
Boulders, barren of animals, 9.
Bowerbankia, 205.
Braunton, fertility of, 281; legend of, 281.
Burrows, 283; botany of, 285; animals of, 286.
Bristle-tail, 389.
Brixham, visit to, 44; appearance of, 46; its natural history, 47.
Brittlestars, 56 ; 206.
Campanularia, structure of, 297; egg-vesicles, 298 ; medusoid, 299.
Caprella; 82; 379.
Capstone Hill, 102; 129; description of, 159; prospects from, 162 ;
164; spout-holes, 320.
Care of God over his creatures, 67 ; 144; 201; 207; 302.
Carn-top, 279 ; legend of, 279.
Caverns, 293; 294; 397.
Cellularia, (ciliated) cells of, 144; bird’s heads of, 146.
(bird’s head), 195; cells of, 198; polype of, 199; 204.
Chondrus, iridescence of, 188; 382.
Chrysaora, 364; eye-prisms of, 366; parasites of, 367; light of,
368 ; beauty of, 368; mode of taking prey, 369; of
ovipositing, 873; eggs, 374; thread-capsules, 376.
Circulation, in Alcyonium, 80; in Laomedea, 149; in Tunicate
Mollusca, 240.
Clava, 206.
Compass-hill Bay, 393; legend of, 394.
Coralline, 204 ; white light of, 226.
Corynactis, 423; its locality, 423; varieties of, 424; structure of
424; mode of feeding, 426; colours, 426; thread-
capsules, 427; habits of, 429.
Coryne (branching), 190; generation of, 194.
(sessile), 208.
(three-headed), 222.
(slender) 257 ; tentacles of, 259,
Crab, habits of, 174.
Crewkhorne Cave, 397; legend of, 397.
Crisia, 205.
Cycloum, 157.
Dead-man’s fingers, 76; 94; beauty of its polypes, 77; structure
of, 79 ; circulation in, 80; spicule, 81.
GENERAL INDEX. 445
Devonshire, claims of, 2; beauty of its scenery, 3; 104; lanes of,
4; 305; rocks of, 107; 307; 329; 396; wells
of, 306,
Disaster, a fatal, 166; 395.
Doris, 12; 62; 71; habits of, 13; 59; spawn of, 14.
Doto, 83.
Economy in Nature, 202.
Eolis coronata, 12.
—— despecta, 82.
— papillosa, 12; voracity of, 16.
exigua, 83.
Epitaph, curious, 282.
Eucratea, its mode of growth, 133; 141; structure of, 134; ana-
logy with Rotifera, 139; ciliary action, 139,
Exploit, a gallant, 309.
Feather-star, 56; its habits, 57.
Fishing, Mode of, 106.
Flowers, 104; 107; 172; 268; 270; 280; 284; 292; 327; 339;
Flustra, fleshy, 276.
Galathea, 71.
Glory of God in Creation, 248 ; 354.
Grantia, 235.
(ciliated) 238.
Hangman Hill, 265; legend of, 272.
Hele, 104; 130; legend of, 130 ; pools of, 141.
Hillsborough, 129; etymology of, 261; described, 262; fall
of, 266.
Hockey Lane, 104.
Ilfracombe, beauty of, 101; View of, 128; 129; Tunnels of, 397 ;
Zoophytes found at, 434; Farewell to, 436.
Jackdaws, 8; 109.
Johnstonella, 356,
Kestrel, 8; 310.
Landslips, 266 ; 293.
Langley Open, 271.
Laomedea, (angled), 82 ; medusoids of, 84; mode of growth, 84;
89; luminosity, 252.
— (slimy), 148; circulation in, 149; polype of, 149.
Lee, beauty of, 176 ; 273; in a shower, 304,
Legends, 46 ; 130; 166 ; 272; 279 ; 281; 3808 ; 327; 340; 394; 397.
Lepralia, 204 ; metamorphosis of, 218,
Q2
446 GENERAL INDEX.
Light, influence of upon colour, 42 ; produced by animals, 250;
253 ; various effects of, 412 ; ode to, 415.
Lime Light, 226.
Limestone, honey-combed, 23.
Lion Rock, 130; 155 ; 423.
Lobster’s Horn, 313; secondary cells, 314; generation of, 315;
development of stem, 316.
Madrepore (Smith’s), locality of, 103; 108; 127; 132; skeleton
of, 110; resemblance to Actinia, 112; the fleshy struc-
ture, 113; beauty of, 113; tentacles of, 114; 116;
ciliary action, 115; mode of feeding, 117 ; reproduction
of parts, 120; the frilled bands, 121; thread-capsules,
123 ; aggregated specimens, 127.
(Scarlet and gold), 399; locality of, 400; 404; beauty
of, 400; characters, 401; 404; skeleton, 403; thread-
capsules, 402.
Marychurch, visited, 3; farewell to, 100.
Meduse, mode of procuring, 332; 349; luminous, 335; 346.
— structure of, 335; 341; 364; generation of, 353; 368.
Ruby, 348; motions of, 351; habits of; 369; 409,
disease of, 409.
Fairy’s cap, 387.
Medusoids of Polypes, 84; 299; 331,
Microscope, difficulties of, 184; charms of, 197.
Morte Stone, 308.
village, 309; legend of, 309.
Oceania, tiny, 384.
Oddicombe, 6; 21; 54.
Pedicellina, (Belgian), 158; 205; 210; structure of, 210; gene-
ration of, 213.
(spined), 217.
(slender), 217.
Pelagia, white, 378.
Petit Tor, prospect from, 5; cove of, 7; the promontory,
Lie Sar
Pholas, habits of, 62; respiration of, 63; siphonal tubes, 64; their
tentacular extremities, 65.
Pipe-fish, described 179; habits of, 180; disease of, 183.
Pleurobranchus, described, 71; habits of, 73; shell, 79.
Plumularia, (crested), 82.
—_-———— (bristle) 311; generation of, 311.
—
GENERAL INDEX. AAT
Plumularia (feather) 287; generation of 288.
Polycera, 138; 222.
Polynoe, 391; weapons of, 392.
Pomeroy family, legends of, 46.
Pools in rocks, 6; 10; 24; 34; 39; 54; 93; 141; 187; 324;
330; 423.
Prawn, habits of, 39 ; its beauty of colour, 41; changes, 42.
Prospects, 5; 105; 162; 264.
Purpura, 60; experiments with its dye, 61.
Rapparee Cove, 338; legend of, 340.
Respiration in Mollusca, 63; 240.
Rock of Death, 308.
Rockham Bay, 306.
Sabella, beauty of, 417 ; mode of procuring, 419; reproduction of
the crown, 421.
Samson’s Cave, 293; 333.
Sand-worm, 171; dye of, 173.
Saxicava. its boring powers, 23 ; its habits, 47; 93.
Scallop Painted, beauty of, 47; the mantle, 48; eyes, 49, 52;
spins a thread, 50 ; the foot, 50; manner of leaping, 50;
structure of the gills, 53.
Score Valley, 280.
Sea spider, 171.
Sea-weeds, 24; 39; 55; 71; 94; 142; 188; 189; 204; 230;
324; 330.
Sea-worm, honeycomb, 275; 284.
Serpula, 11; 63.
Shipwrecks, 131; 274; 308; 340.
Shrimp (Medusa), 367; metamorphosis of, 368.
(Mantis), 379; its weapons, 379 ; its habits, 380.
(Caddis), 382.
Shore, charm of, 154.
Smallmouth, Caves at, 294; animals of, 103, 296.
Snake-head, 142; 205; cells of, 142; their door and hinge, 143.
Sponges, 9; 94; 204; crystals of, 234; 238; 276.
Spring, charm of, 68; 103,
Squirrel, 22.
Stone, a populous, 202.
Stone-turning, a productive occupation, 178.
Sunset, glories of, 161; 413.
Syrinx, (Harvey’s), 157.
448 GENERAL INDEX.
~ Thaumantias (hairy), 334; 344.
(Busk’s), 386.
(Club-bearing), 407.
Thread-capsules, of Act. bellis, 32; of A. anguicoma, 99; of
Caryophyllia, 123 ; of Anthea, 268.
suggestions respecting, 33 ; 124; phenomena of,
123 ; 360; 407; 428.
——_—____————elaborate structure of, 125; 406; 427; 429.
—_———_———-evolution of, 126, 407.
of Meduse, 351 ; 360; 376; 410.
——-—of Balanophyllia, 402 ; of Act. crassicornis, 405.
of Corynactis, 427; of Act. candida, 432.
Tor Abbey, 62.
Torr Point, 328; 399.
Torrs, 327 ; 397.
Tracy, Tomb of, 310; legend of, 397.
Trochus, 47; 62.
Tubulipora, 227.
Tunnel Rocks, 396; 423.
Turris, Ruby, 348; generation of, 349; 353; thread-capsules,
351; beauty of, 354.
Vivaria, marine, 228.
Walk, Summer morning, 269.
Watcombe, wild scenery of, 58.
Watermouth, 105; 172.
White-pebble Bay, 329. .
Wildersmouth, 129; 155; 160; 162; described, 165.
Willsia, 359 ; parasite of, 359.
‘Woodlouse, 390.
Woollacombe Sands, in a shower, 310.
SYSTEMATIC INDEX.
VERTEBRATA.
Mugil chelo, 106.
Blennius, 56.
Clupea alba, 369.
Syngnathus lumbriciformis,178.
MOLLUSCA.
Doris tuberculata, 13, 14, 59,71.
— bilamellata, 12, 13, 62, 83,
232.
—— pilosa, 62.
—— Johnstoni, 71.
Polycera ocellata, 12, 13.
Doto coronata, 83.
Eolis papillosa, 12, 16.
coronata, 12.
—— despecta, 82.
exigua, 82.
Antiopa cristata, 325.
Pleurobranchus plumula, 71.
Patella vulgata, 23, 276.
Purpura lapillus, 60.
Trochus cinerarius, 119.
- ziziphinus, 47, 62, 71.
Littorina littorea, 23.
Cyprea Europea, 71.
Pecten opercularis, 47, 71.
distortus, 71.
Anomia, 71.
Mytilus edulis, 10.
Saxicava rugosa, 23, 47, 65, 93.
Pholas dactylus, 62, 63.
parva, 62, 65.
Botryllus, 71.
Perophora Listeri, 241.
quadrilineata, 222, 232.
Amaroucium proliferum, 322.
Balanus, 23.
ANNELLIDA.
Serpula, 11, 63, 71, 233.
Sabella vesiculosa, 416.
Sabellaria alveolata, 275, 284.
Arenicola branchialis (?) 172.
Polynoe cirrata, 71, 391.
impar, 391.
Phyllodoce lamelligera, 10, 282.
Hirudo (?) 309.
Johnstonella Catharina, 356.
—"
CRUSTACEA.
Cancer pagurus, 174.
Maia squinado, 311.
Galathea rugosa, 71.
strigosa, 71.
Palemon serratus, 39.
Hyperia medusarum, 367.
Cerapus Whitei, 382.
Caprella, 82, 379.
Ligia oceanica, 390.
Phoxichilus, 171.
INSECTA.
Machilis maritima, 389.
Eristalis tenax, 390.
POLYZOA.
Tubulipora flabellaris, 227.
Crisidia cornuta, 435.
450
Crisia denticulata, 232.
——-geniculata, 435.
eburnea, 435.
aculeata, 205,
Eucratea chelata, 132, 206, 226.
Anguinaria spatulata, 142, 205,
216
Lepralia spinifera (?) 204.
—_cocinea, 218.
Membranipora pilosa, 222, 232.
Cellularia avicularia, 195, 204,
226.
——ciliata, 144.
reptans, 435.
Hookeri, 435.
Flustra foliacea, 435.
chartacea, 400.
Alcyonidium hispidum, 276.
Cycloum papillosum, 157.
Beania mirabilis, 205, 225.
Valkeria cuscuta, 436.
pustulosa, 436.
Bowerbankia densa, 134, 205,
216.
Pedicellina Belgica, 158, 205,
210, 232.
echinata, 217.
gracilis, 217.
oe
ECHINODERMATA,
Comatula rosacea, 56.
Ophiocoma neglecta, 56.
rosula, 71.
—_————— minuta, 207.
Asterina gibbosa, 62.
Kchinus esculentus, 71.
Syrinx Harveii, 157.
ACALEPHZ.
Chrysaora cyclonota, 364.
Pelagia — ? 378.
Willsia stellata, 359.
Turris neglecta, 348, 410.
Saphenia Titania, 387.
Oceania pusilla, 384.
Afquorea vitrina, 340, 345,
Forbesiana, 345.
Ce aa pilosella, 334, 344,
09.
SYSTEMATIC INDEX.
Thaumantias Buskiana, 385.
(?) Corynetes, 407.
Noctiluca miliaris, 253.
——
ZOOPHYTA.
Clava multicornis, 206.
Coryne ramosa, 190, 232.
- sessilis, 206, 208.
Cerberus, 222, 259.
stauridia, 257.
Sertularia rosacea, 226.
argentea, 434,
——-—— abietina, 434,
pumila, 434,
Plumularia setacea, 143, 311.
pinnata, 287.
cristata, 82, 143, 311,
379.
Antennularia antennina, 311,
313.
Laomedea gelatinosa, 148.
geniculata, 939,
84, 252, 290.
obliqua, 434,
Campanularia volubilis, 296.
Alcyonium digitatum, 76, 94.
Caryophyllia Smithii, 103, 108,
132, 236, 296, 400, 405, 424,
427,
Balanophyllia regia, 399.
Corynactis Allmanni, 423, 430.
Actinia mesembryanthemum, 9,
10, 24, 232.
candida, 430.
anguicoma, 96, 120, 232.
82,
gemmacea, 108, 120,
168, 284.
crassicornis, 16, 34, 59,
92, 150, 405.
bellis, 25, 55, 59, 120,
232,
nivea, 93, 232.
rosea, 90, 232.
alba, 71.
Anthea cereus, 15, 62, 120, 153,
232, 267, 330, 418.
PORIFERA.
Pachymatisma Johnstonia, 9.
SYSTEMATIC INDEX.
Halichondria panicea, 276.
celata, 204.
sanguinea,
204,
276.
Grantia botryoides, 234.
ciliata, 238.
nivea, 233.
ALGH,
Halidrys siliquosa, 330.
Fucus, 10, 55, 230,
Laminaria digitata, 39, 82, 89,
93, 230, 252, 330.
saccharina, 6, 39,
55, 330.
Taonia atomaria, 325.
Cladostephus verticillatus, 324.
Polysiphonia, 188.
Dasya arbuscula, 132, 188.
Laurencia pinnatifida, 25,
Chylocladia articulata, 25.
45]
Corallina officinalis, 10, 54,188,
204, 226.
Delesseria sanguinea, 39, 71,
94, 188, 230, 232.
———h ypoglossum, 142.
Nitophyllum laceratum, 227.
Plocamium coccineum, 24.
Rhodymenia ciliata, 25.
jubata, 232, 330.
palmata, 10; 56,
—_.
188.
——_—_—_——— palmetta, 24.
Chondrus crispus, 55, 188, 230,
232, 382.
Tridza edulis, 39, 71, 94, 230.
Ptilota sericea, 188, 189, 204.
plumosa, 232.
Ceramium, 24, 188,
Bryopsis plumosa, 204.
Ulva, 55, 188, 230, 232.
Enteromorpha, 230.
FINIS.
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