680 Transactions of the Society. 



M. Camille Viguier* has described and given beautiful figures 

 of a type which he calls Fascicularia, and has proposed to include 

 Paralcyonium along with it in a special family or sub-family, 

 Fascicularinse. But it is not evident that Fascicularia is really 

 related to Paralcyonium : it consists of groups united by stolons ; 

 the cavities of the polyps are continued, quite distinct from one 

 another, down the " basilar column ;" there is no common region 

 except the base ; the large polyps expand from the top of the 

 basilar column, but there is no branched or lobed polyparium ; in 

 fact, as the author says, there is no polyparium properly so-called. 

 He makes the same remark, it is true, in regard to Paralcyonium, 

 which, however, he had not seen. What at once marks Paralcy- 

 onium as distant from Fascicularia, is the presence of a branched 

 polyparium rising from the top of a firmer cylindrical stalk, into 

 which it can be retracted. Viguier speaks of the " incontestable 

 resemblance " between his Fascicularia and the Paralcyonium of 

 Milne-Edwards, but we are unable to share this view. The descrip- 

 tion of Fascicularia suggests to us relationship with Sympodin m 

 rather than with Paralcyonium. 



A recent careful study f of abundant material of Fascicularia 

 and Paralcyonium by Sophie Motz-Kossowska and Louis Fage 

 corroborates Viguier' s view. In their interesting paper the authors 

 point out that the two types agree (1) in having a stolon con- 

 necting the colonies (but this is often almost suppressed in 

 Paralcyonium) ; (2) in having a rigid basal portion into which the 

 polyps can be retracted (but in Fascicularia this is composed of 

 the unfused gastric cavities of the polyps, whereas in Paralcy- 

 onium there has been much coalescence, and therefore far fewer 

 longitudinal canals than polyps; moreover, Paralcyonium has a 

 branching polyparium with secondary polyps arising from primary 

 polyps) ; (3) in having similar spicules — small, flat, opaque 

 elliptical forms in a sub-tentacular collar and larger spindles in 

 the basal portion (but the spindles are very much larger in 

 Paralcyonium). The authors point out that Paralcyonium passes 

 through a Fascicularia stage, and in spite of the great difference in 

 the basilar portion and in the relations of the polyps to one another, 

 they unite them in the family Fascicularida^, defined as follows : 

 " Colonies very poor in ccenenchyma, composed of several groups 

 of polyps united by a stolon ; polyps united at the base in a rigid 

 column within which they can be completely retracted." It is 

 suggested that the family is connected by Fascicularia with the 

 Clavularidse, that there are some affinities with Nidalia and 



* Etudes sur les animaux inferieurs de la Baie d'Alger. III. TJn nouveau type 



d'Anthozoaire (Fascicularia edwardsi). Arch. Zool. Exper. ser. 2, vi. (1888) 



pp. 351-73 (2 pis.). See also H. de Lacaze-Duthiers ; Coralliaires du Golfe du 



Lion. Alcyonaires. Arch. Zool. Exper. ser. 3, viii. (1900) pp. 353-462 (4 pis.). 



f Contribution a l'etude de la farnille des Fascicularides. Arch. Zool. Exper., 



. (1907) pp. 423-43 (10 figs.). 



