Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/76

57 there are many others on our coast, presenting a variety of forms which Art would fail to imitate; the Plumularias and Sertularias resembling small bushes, must contain some tens of thousands of Polypes on each bush,—the Plumularias have polyp cells on one side only of the branch, the Sertularias on both;—some, as the Campanularias, creep closely to old shells and seaweeds, jointed at regular intervals, the joints being ringed, and throwing out pretty campanulate cells; others as Ætea, winding along seaweeds, such as Ballia and Callithamnion, and resembling the head of a snake without its lower jaw, from which cause the genus was called by Lamarck Anguinaria (Anguis—a Snake), but the former appellation bestowed upon it by Lamouroux, has again been generally adopted: in a common Victorian species (dilitata,) specimens of which the Rev. Dr. Landsborough in his the manual of British Zoophytes, mentions as having received from his and our esteemed friend Dr. Daniel Curdie, of Tandarook, Camperdown, the head instead of termintingterminating [sic] like that of a serpent, is shaped like a ladle; the Lepraliæ or Sea-scurf are abundant enough on rocks and stones, and most puzzling the student will find them ) then there is the Serialaria or Nit Coralline, not a pleasant object to the naked eye, but under the microscope displaying its cells, disposed in rows at intervals, so as to resemble Pan-pipes, whilst in another species (convoluta) they are whorled.

The Catenicella is widely distributed in the Australian Seas, each cell divided by a short corneous tube, and variously marked with fenestræ or vittæ; almost every collection of Algæ will afford some