224 



ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Billard. 1 One of the accessory tubes projecting beyond the 

 cladate tube had developed a stolon-like extremity, and several 

 of the hydroclades also terminated in similar prolongations. 



Distribution. The species 

 appears to be widely distributed 

 in the neighbourhood of the 

 Azores (Allman, 1883, as P. 

 pumila ; Pictet and Bedot, 

 1900; Billard, 1907) and in 

 the Bay of Biscay, off the N.W. 

 corner of Spain. At the time 

 when I identified these speci- 

 mens in the British Museum, 

 P. flabellata had not been re- 

 corded from British Seas. 

 Since then, however, the occur- 

 rence of a specimen in the 

 collection of the Swedish State 

 Museum has been recorded 

 by Dr. Jaderholm from the 

 " Shetland Islands, ' Jutska 

 Refvet,' some sterile colonies 

 growing on Diphasia alata. 

 Collector unknown." 2 



While I cannot but agree 

 with Pictet and Bedot that no 



pr.hd. 



FIG. 6. POLYPLUMARIA FLABELLATA. 

 X40. 



Portion of hydroclade of Polyplumaria 

 flabellata. b>; branch of secondary 

 hydroclade ; ha, hydrotheca ; i.s, 

 inferior median unpaired sarcotheca ; 

 I.s, paired lateral sarcotheca ; pr.hd, 

 primary hydroclade ; s.s, supracaly- 

 cinc unpaired sarcotheca sec. hd, 

 secondary hydroclade. 



specific distinction exists between Allman's P. pumila and the form 

 recorded above, more evidence is required ere Diplopteron insigne 

 (Allman, 1874) of the "Porcupine" Expedition can be definitely 

 linked with it. For the opposite hydrocladial nematophores, upon 

 whose occasional occurrence in P. flabellata Bedot lays stress, are 

 indefinite in their position on the hydroclade and even in their 

 relation to one another, and on this account are of altogether 

 different value as a distinguishing character from those definitely 

 placed, strictly opposite nematophores which may be regarded 

 rather as supplementary appendages of the lateral nematophores 

 than as independent structures arising directly from the hydroclade. 

 Nutting, indeed, regards them, provisionally at least, as of generic 

 significance (1900, p. Si). 



1 A. Billard, "Expeditions scientifiques du ' Travailleur ' et clu 'Talisman," : 

 ' Hydroides,' vol. viii., 1907, p. 222. 



' E. Jaderholm, ' Hydroiden, in Northern and Arctic Invertebrates in the 

 Collection of the Swedish State Museum,' " Kungl. Svenska Vetens. - Akad. 

 Handl." vol. xlv., 1909, p. 109. 



I have been unable to find 'Jutska Refvet' on the one inch Ordnance Survey 

 Maps of the Shetland Islands. 



