254 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



they often occur together on piles, stones, and seaweed, etc., from low water to the deepest parts of 



Vineyard Sound. 



Bowerbankia gracilis, var. caudata (Hincks). [PI. xxvui, fig. 79, 79a.] 



Hincks 1877, p. 215 iValkeria caudata). 



Verrill and Smith 1874, p. 710 (Vesicularia fusca). 



Stem entirely creeping, except for occasional sprawling branches. Zooecia elongate, subcylin- 

 drical, biserial and usually opposite in arrangement, at any rate arising from the side of the stolon, 

 truncate and often squared at the top; base narrowed rather suddenly near the point of attachment, 

 and produced on the lower or outer side into a variously shaped process, usually pointed. A strong 

 gizzard is present and there are eight tentacles. The size of the zooecia varies considerably, and in dif- 

 ferent states of contraction they present quite different shapes. A little study of the specimen will 

 reveal the caudate process. This appendage shows a large amount of variation; it is not infrequently 

 bifid or trifid, it may project straight downward or more outward, and it is quite variable in size and 

 often difficult to find on old cells. The color varies from pale yellowish to brown, and only the very 

 young cells are usually transparent. 



Abundant and widely distributed throughout the region, in all sorts of places and at all depths, 

 but I have found it in greater abundance on old piles in New Bedford Harbor than elsewhere. It 

 grows on algse, hydroid and Bryozoa stems, on shells, stones, ascidians, etc., sometimes so thickly as 

 to cover the substratum with a close nap. Not noted in the outside waters of the region; evidently a 

 shorewise form. 



I place Verrill's records of " Vesicularia fusca Smitt " under this species with little hesitation, as a 

 specimen from South End, near New Haven, given me by Verrill as fusca, proves to be caudata. The 

 latter species is often quite brownish in color, and all the material which I have examined has proved 

 to be either this species or 9roci7u. I have specimens of cauiia/a from Long Island Sound, from Eastport, 

 Me., and from Labrador, which agrees with Verrill's account of the distribution of/«ica, and I have taken 

 the species also at Beaufort, N. C, and at the Tortugas Islands, Fla. It should be added that caudata 

 was not described at the time of Verrill's records of fusca. 



Genus AMATHIA Lamouroux, 1812. 



This genus is easily recognized by the phytoid form of the colony, with the short zooecia arranged 

 in a double series which winds spirally on the stem. 



Amathia dichotoma (Verrill). [PI. xxix, fig. 81, 8ia.] 



Verrill, in Verrill and Smith 1874, p. 709 {Vesicularia dichotoma. n. sp.). 

 I<eidy 1855, p. 143 (.Valkeria pustulosa). 



Verrill's description is complete and accurate, .so I quote it in full. ''Stems clustered, caespitose 

 usually I or 2 inches high, slender, white, and repeatedly forking. The branches stand indifferent planes 

 so as to produce miniature tree-like or shrub-like forms, many of which generally rise close together, form- 

 ing crowded tufts upon rocks, oyster-shells or algae. When the stem or a branch divides there is a joint 

 formed at the base of each of the forks, by the interpolation of a very short segment of a dark, brownish, 

 opaque substance, which contrasts strongly with the white translucent substance of the rest of the 

 stem. Zooids arranged closely in two subspiral rows of 6 to 12 each, just below each fork of the stem 

 and branches, and not occupying half of the length of the internodes, which are naked and smooth 

 below the crowded clusters of the zooids, these are smooth, greenish brown, broad oval or obovate in 

 contraction, subcylindrical or obovate in expansion, entirely sessile, and but little narrowed at the 

 base, and so crowded as to appear imbricated. The tentacles are eight, long and slender, in expansion 

 usually more than half the length of the cell." 



Verrill and Smith do not record the species from Vineyard Sound and I have never dredged it. 

 It is common on the piles at Vineyard Haven and Edgartown, and occvu-s also in similar situations at 

 Woods Hole and Nantucket. Verrill's records are for Great Egg Harbor, N. J., and Long Island Sound. 



