12 CLAVLD^E. 



y cited; tentacles numerous, scattered over the whole of 

 the club-shaped head; GONOPHORES in mulberry-likemasses, 

 borne on very short stems, which are situated in openings 

 in the creeping base (rudimentary tubes}. 



MB. NORMAN has, with considerable hesitation*, consti- 

 tuted the genus Merona for the reception of this species 

 at the suggestion of Prof. Allman. The only difference 

 between it and Tubiclava is to be found in the position of 

 the sporosacs, which, instead of forming clusters on the 

 body of the ordinary polypites, are massed together at the 

 extremity of short stems (yonoblastidia] . 



The character of the polypary, of the polypites, and of the 

 sporosacs themselves is identical in the two, and I confess 

 I am unable to see any sufficient ground for separating 

 them. 



The degree in which the fertile polypite may be atro- 

 phied in the discharge of its functions does not seem 

 to be a point of much significance. In some cases it is 

 fully developed at first, but the head and tentacles are 

 absorbed as the reproductive bodies advance towards 

 maturity, and it is converted into a (so-called) gonoblas- 

 tidiam. In Eudendrium capillare (Alder) the male spo- 

 rosacs at least always occur in umbelliform clusters ; yet 

 Prof. Allman himself has abandoned the genus Corymbo- 

 gonium, which he had based on this peculiarity. Tubiclava 

 cornucopia bears much the same relation to T. lucerna 

 ' as E. capillare^ does to the members of its genus which 

 carry the sporosacs round the base of a perfect polypite, 

 and should not be separated from its true kindred on the 



* "It. . . . still appears to me questionable whether the exact position 

 of the gonophores is a sufficient ground on which to establish a genus." 

 Ann. N. H. for April 1865. 



t The Etidendrii'.m fti-ln/H-nla (Wright) and other species present the 

 i-amc structure as E. capillare. 



