File:Popular history of the aquarium of marine and fresh-water animals and plants (1857) (14789537673).jpg

Identifier: popularhistoryof00sowe (find matches)
Title: Popular history of the aquarium of marine and fresh-water animals and plants
Year: 1857 (1850s)
Authors: Sowerby, George Brettingham, 1788-1854
Subjects: Aquariums Marine biology Freshwater biology
Publisher: London : Lovell Reeve
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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tidarim are inpairs, some alternate, some at irregular intervals. Sertularia argentea Is a fine, feathered, bushy polype, sometimes called theSquirrels-tail Coralline, which is found growing on therock-oysters at Sheppey and Sheerness. The ramificationsare in tufts, arranged spirally round the stem; an arrange-ment which gives a peculiarly graceful air to the wholepolypidom, which sometimes reaches several feet in length.But when its upper branches reach this length, much ofthe vitaKty of the under branches is impaired throughage, and these earlier parts die and become worn; in thisstate they fall away and leave the lower part of the stembare. The following experiment on the dead and dry polypi-dom of a Sertiilaria will be found interesting, showing adegree of elasticity in the horny substance of which it iscomposed :— About two years ago I detached two specimens ofSertularia from an oyster-shell: they were about If inchhigh, the side branches being from 4 to f of an inch in length.
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HYDHOID ZOOPHTTES. 45 Having broken off with the Sertulana a piece of the shell toform a base for it to stand upon, I placed it within the doorsof a bookcase to keep it from the dast; about two or threemonths afterwards I took it to a tub of rain-water for thepurpose of washing off the saline incrustations, and, afterrinsing it several times, I observed the branches begin toassume a more rigid appearance, and the stem, which hadbeen previously lax and drooping, became perfectly uprightand rigid. If any part was drawn aside, it immediately re-gained its position, and in this state it remahied nearly aday before it began to droop again. I repeated the experi-ment a few weeks back, with the same results.—-/. Bladon,Zoologist,^ i. p. 34. ANTENNULAraA ANTENNIXA. This is a pretty Coralline, the branches of which are finelyserrated and ciliated, and have a beautiful feathery appear-ance. The genus is thus described by Johnston :— Polypidomplant-like, horny, simple, or branched irregularl

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