272 Dr. Johnston on Beania, 



XXXI. — Miscellanea Zoologica. By George Johnston, 

 M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin- 

 burgh. 



Description of a New Genus of British Zoophyte. 



The kind liberality of my friends, interested in similar pur- 

 suits, has lately furnished me with several undescribed spe- 

 cies of British zoophytes ; and there is amongst them one, in 

 some respects, so remarkable and eccentric, that it seems no 

 more than just to its discoverer that an early description of 

 it should be placed on record. It was sent to me by Mr. Wm. 

 Bean of Scarborough, who was fully aware of the novelty and 

 singularity of its characters, which raise it indisputably to a 

 generic rank in its family. Not for this reason however, but 

 because of the very great number and value of the discoveries 

 of that well-known naturalist, I propose to associate this zoo- 

 phyte with his name and memory ; and in doing so I know 

 that I shall confer a gratification on many of his fellow-labour- 

 ers ; and I keep very clearly within the precincts of the rule, 

 which forbids us to confer on a genus the name of an indivi- 

 dual unless his services shall have honestly won him that com- 

 pliment. 



Class ZOOPHYTA. 



Order Ascidioida. Family Vesiculariad^. 



Genus Beania. 



(Det nomen Dom. Gulielmus Bean, zoophytorum investi- 

 gator peritissimus.) 



Char. Polyparium phy toideum, filiforme, repens, corneum ; 

 surculis tubulosis, diffuse ramosis, vesiculiferis. Vesiculae sin- 

 gulatim sparsoe, erectae, magnae, ovatae, uno latere spinosas. — 

 Polypi ignoti. 



Polypidom confervoid, horny, the shoots creeping, 



filiform, tubular, irregularly divided ; the cells very large, ses- 

 sile, erect, scattered and solitary, ovate with a double spinous 

 keel on one side. Polypes unknown. 



Species B. mirabilis. 

 Habitat in mare Britannico. Scarborough, very rare, Wm. Bean, Esq. 

 The only specimen which I have seen of this very remark- 



