ATHACTYLID^E. 87 



allied genera, is opake white, aiid thickly paved with large 

 thread-cells. There is a circular groove near the base of 

 the body, from which the gouophores spring a portion of 

 the structure which I misinterpreted at first, and which 

 led me to suppose that there was a shallow cup round the 

 base of the polypite. 



The polypites bearing the reproductive buds are not 

 confined to any particular portion of the zoophyte, but 

 are irregularly distributed. In this species I have some- 

 times found male gonophores borne 011 fully developed 

 polypites. In other cases they form mere clusters at the 

 extremity of the branches. 



I have little hesitation in identifying the present species 

 with the E. humile of Allman. His specimens were ob- 

 tained in much the same locality as those from which I 

 originally described the species, but were of somewhat 

 larger growth. His variety corymbifera is probably 

 founded on examples of E, insigne in which the fertile 

 polypites were atrophied. 



Hab. Torquay, on rocks between tide-marks; Ilfra- 

 combe; Swanage, Dorset (T. H.). 



Family X. Atractylidae. 



Polypites borne on a stem*, with a single wreath of filiform 

 tentacula surrounding a conical proboscis . 



Genus ATRACTYLIS, T. S. Wright (in part). 



Der. arpaicros, a spindle. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. Ccenosarc sheathed in a chitinous 



* The stem is sometimes rudimentary, and a few species occur in which, 

 so far as our present knowledge of them goes, it is suppressed altogether ; 

 but the development of a stem is a prevailing characteristic of the group. 



