174 Dr. T. S. Wright on Hydroid Zoophytes. 



Doubtful species are — 



13. Elaps gastrodelus, D. & B. 



14. Elaps diastema, T). & B. 



15. Elaps zonatus, Hallowell. 



16. Elaps divaricatus, Hallowell. 



17. Elaps apiatus, Jan. 



18. Elaps Fit zing eri, Jan. 



19. Elaps Gravenhorstii, Jan. 



20. Elaps alternans, D. & B. 



XVII. — Remarks on Professor Allman's "Notes on the Hydroid 



Zoophytes." By T. Strethill Wright, M.D. 



« 



In the Number of the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory' for July 1859, is contained a description of three Zoo- 

 phytes by Professor Allman which have previously been described 

 by myself. 



1. Manicella fusca (Allman), Bimeria vestita (mihi). 



After describing this Zoophyte, Professor Allman states, " I 

 have not been able to find any description of the present animal, 

 though Dr. S. Wright informed me last year that he had met 

 with a Tubularian Zoophyte in which the greater part of the 

 polype was covered by the polypary.'^ 



This Zoophyte was discovered by myself in August (1858), 

 soon after which time I gave an account of it in a letter to Mr. 

 Joshua Alder. In October following I mentioned it and its 

 locality to Professor Allman, — the same locality in which he 

 found it last spring. On the 26th of January last, I described 

 it, with figures, to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh ; 

 and it appeared in full in the report of the Society's Proceedings 

 contained in the ' Witness ' of the 16th of February, in which 

 paper, under the editorship of the late Hugh Miller and since 

 his death, the " Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society " have 

 been regularly reported for some years. Finally, I have de- 

 scribed the animal, with figures, in the ^ Edin. New Phil. Journal' 

 for July last. I am at a loss to account for Professor Allman's 

 inability to find a description of Bimeria vestita, as an applica- 

 tion to its discoverer would have removed every difficulty. 



Professor Allman errs in stating that the polypary (the poly- 

 pidom or corallum of other writers) covers the body of the polype 

 and one-half the tentacles. The covering of the polype in Bi- 

 meria consists of the " colletoderm *,'' which in this species is 



* I have formerly given the term " colletoderm " (/coXXiyri^?, glutinator) 

 to a glutinous secretion which forms a covering to the hard corallum of 

 zoophytes. In the Corynes it is readily seen on the tips of the growing 

 shoots of the polypary, which are cemented by it to the surfaces over 

 which they creep. It also forms the gelatinous marsupial sacs which sur- 

 mount the female reproductive capsules of Laomedea lacerata, Sertularia 

 pumila, &c., and in which the ova undergo their first metamorphosis. It 



