3- Tubularia ramofa. Branched Pipe Coralline.
Tubularia ramo- This Pipe Coralline is
Jif, axillis ramulorum con- branched, and the infertions
tort™- o f the branches are twilled.
Small ramified tubular Coralline. Ellis Corallin. pag. 31.
tab. 16. fig. a. tab. 17. fig. a. A.
"Tubidaria ramofia. Linn. Sy ft. Nat. Ed. 12. p. 1302.
I have often met with fpecimens of this Coralline that
have been regularly branched in a doubly pinnated form ;
and when I was at Emfworth, on the borders of Sulfex, I
found a fpecimen o f this Tubularia, with its ovaries
placed in a circle round the lower part of its heads.
VI. S E R T U - L A R I A .
Animal polydephalum,
crefcens habitu plantce, ba-
Jique affixum.
Stirps tubulofa, cornea,
denticulis calyciformibusob-
fita , medullæ animalis continua
capitula polypijormia
emittentibus.
Ovaria : vejiculceJingu-
lares, polypos majores, ova
vel prolem vivam continentes.
V E S I C U L A R C O R A L L IN E .
This is a many-headed animal,
growing in the lhape of
a plant, and fixt by its bafe.
Its tubulous horny item is
full of cup-fhaped denticles,
through which proceed little
heads in the form o f polypes,
from the gelatinous medullary
part, which is continued
through the infide.
The ovaries are little bladders,
either containing a larger
kind of polype-head, which
fends forth clufters of eggs, or
(in other fpecies) the young
ones already formed and alive.
In
In my Effay on Corallines, page 32, I have taken notice
that the branched tubular Coralline was like the
Hydra, or frefh-water Polype; but with this difference,
that on account of its expofed fituation in the fea, nature
had clothed it with a homy fkin. And in this genus of
Sertularia, nature' has been Hill more favourable in providing
little cup-like denticles to fecure their many tender
heads fafe, when they are drawn in upon any alarm
of danger; whereas the heads of the tubular Corallines
have no fuch protection, for which reafon they are not fo
often found in the turbulent parts of the ocean as in Ihel-
tered recedes of harbours.
It is well known, that the young of fhell-fifh are produced
with the fhell upon them ; the young fea polypes
have alfo their proper horny covering on, fo that the following
obfervations will appear agreeable to truth. The
young animal difcharged from its ovary adheres by its bafe,
and with its claws quickly procures nourifhment fufficient
'to increafe its bulk : by this means, then, the Item advances,
and many more heads with their claws come
forth, and ftretch themfelves out for food ; this caufes a
further increafe of nourifhment to be drawn in by thefe
additional active organs, which circulates through the
whole animal, and enables it, agreeable to the order of
nature, to fend forth from its bafe creeping adhering tubes
full of the fame living medullary fubftance with the reft
o f the body. Thefe tubes not otily fecure it from the
motion of the waves, but likewife from thefe rife other
young animals or Corallines, which growing up like the
former, with their proper heads or organs to procure
food, fend out other adhering tubes from below, with a
further increafe of thefe many-headed branched animals;
fo that in a fhort time a whole grove of veficular Coral