Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo13amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ANIMALS OF THE WHARF PILES 89
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a projecting pair of tubes or "siphons," though apparently insignificant, are in reality highly interesting from an evolutionary standpoint. One species (Molgula manhatten- sis) is represented as grow- ing in large yellow masses on the upper part of one of the piles. Some of the in- dividuals of this species are marked with dark starlike colonies of another ascidian (Botryllus gouldii), which grow upon their surfaces. Here and there stand out the conspicuous masses of the pink "sea-pork" (Ama- roucium pellucidum) a colo- nial ascidian whose minute individuals are perceptible as white dots forming irreg- ular ringlike patterns on the colonial mass. On one pile a spreading white patch marks the position of a col- ony of the species Leptocli- num albidum, and here and there bits of delicate web- like net-work dotted with tiny green globules grow over mussels and sea-weed indicating the presence of the green ascidian (Pcro- phora viridis). Some of the ascidians are more or less solitary like the brownish Cynthia partita, and still others (Ciona tenclla) grow in clumps of several individ- uals, comparatively large in size. These have trans- lucent yellowish bodies through which may be seen glimpses of the internal organs. The ascidians as a group possess a pecu- liar interest for biologists, since in spite of their humble appearance and A typical ascidian, or sea-squirt (Ciona tenella). A food-bearing stream of sea-water enters and leaves the creature's sac-like translucent body by means of the two tubes or siphons w - iiiEBiM Si' v> v iTnrf"nl ***' ' * ^» ' * *^p K/CJ * J ¥ i 5T „J '*,:*"'> r^ ^Bfl Large yellow masses of the sea-squirt Molgula, are often found on the submerged piles not far below the water surface

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