REPORT ON THE SIPHONOPHORJE. 279 



on the whole a flat conical form and a diameter of 10 mm. to 15 mm. The upper smaller 

 half (in the lateral view, fig. 8) is the nectosome, composed of the pneumatophore and 

 the corona of bracts. The lower larger half is the siphosome, with the palpons, siphons, 

 tentacles, and gonostyles. 



Nectosome. — The superior half of the flatly conical corm is the nectosome, composed 

 of a large pneumatophore (p) and of a corona of numerous bracts. These latter were 

 nearly all detached and lost, except a few (fig. 9, b) ; but the lamellar pedicles of 

 the bracts and the basal ribs of their attachment to the nectosome (bp) were well 

 preserved, and exhibited the peculiar arrangement described above (p. 271). The 

 bilateral conical nectosome is bisected by the series of buds in the ventral median line. 

 The uppermost part of the nectostyle is prominent over the ventral side of the 

 pneumatophore and bears a cluster of very young buds (ib). From this blastocrene 

 (or the punctum vegetationis of the nectophores) diverge five or six pairs of radial 

 ridges, each of which is composed of four fine parallel ribs, bearing the pedicles of the 

 bracts. The youngest ribs are undulating, and placed on both sides of the ventral 

 median line vertically (fig. 9) ; the oldest ribs are straight, and run nearly horizontally 

 and perpendicular to the former, embracing the upper half of the pneumatophore like a 

 cowl. 



Pneumatophore (figs. 7-9, p). — The float is an ovate vesicle, which occupies the upper 

 half of the conical trunk. Its dorsal side (fig. 7,p) is free and exhibits above the pigment- 

 star of the apex, below a corona of sixteen radial stripes (probably radial septa between 

 the pouches of the pneumatosac). The ventral side (fig. 9,p) and the greater part of the 

 lateral sides (fig. 8) are covered by the embracing cucullate nectostyle and by the corona 

 of bracts attached to it. (Compare above.) 



Bracts (fig. 9, b). — The bracts of this species are probably very numerous and attached 

 to the trunk of the nectosome in the peculiar order described above (p. 271). But 

 nearly all the bracts were detached and lost in the only observed spirit specimen. A 

 few only were preserved (fig. 9, b), and these were oblong or lanceolate leaves, with a basal 

 pair of lateral teeth beyond their lamellar pedicle. The concave inner or axial side of 

 the bract is smooth, the convex outer or abaxial side armed with a number of parallel 

 cnidal ribs (six to eight ?). 



Siphosome. — The inferior half of the conical corm is the siphosome, composed of a 

 superior corona of very numerous palpons (q) and an inferior corona of cormidia, each of 

 which bears a siphon (s), a tentacle (t), a male and a female gonodendron (g). The 

 peculiar arrangement of these ordinate cormidia and their relation to the quadripartite 

 groups of bracts has been described above (p. 271). The full number of cormidia in the 

 specimen observed was probably ten or twelve, the youngest and smallest placed in the 

 ventral median line, the oldest and largest in the dorsal median line (fig. 8, lateral view, 

 from the left side). The blastocrene of the bilateral siphosome, or the series of buds in 



