208 Transactions. — Zoology. 



forcipiform, and well spaced. There are one or two larger 

 ones on each adambulacral plate within the furrow, and 

 groups of these larger ones on the plates which form the 

 mouth-angle. The tube-feet are in four rather crowded rows. 

 The colour in life is dark-grey above, sometimes variegated 

 with brown, and white beneath. 



Hub. On the roots of Lessonia, Ohiro Bay and Lyall Bay. 

 Type specimens are in the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. 



I have given outline figures of a few specimens (PI. XII., 

 figs. 15 to 23), which are reduced to half the natural size : from 

 these it will be seen that the rays are very irregular in size, 

 especially in young individuals, and, as in SticJiaster insignis t 

 they usually form two groups — a group of small rays on one 

 side of the disc and a group of larger ones on the opposite 

 side. This seems to indicate that natural division (fission), 

 which is a characteristic of S. insignis, also obtains in this 

 species. My series of specimens is, however, very small at 

 present, but the species is not uncommon near Wellington, 

 and I hope to collect more specimens shortly, so as to be able 

 to settle definitely this interesting point. 



Art. XXI. — ■Descriptions of Two Note Gymnoblastic Hydroids. 



By H. Fakquhak. 



[Read before the Wellingtoti Philosophical Society, 20th February, 1895.} 



Plate XIII. (in Part). 



Coryne tenella, n. sp. Plate XIII. , fig. 5. 



Hydrocaulus simple or sparingly branched, slender, lax, pale 

 horn-colour, attaining a height of about 15mm., arising from 

 a creeping filiform stolon. The stems are smooth except at 

 the base, where there are a few annulations, and the branches 

 are sometimes slightly corrugated immediately above their 

 origin. Hydranths elongate, cylindrical, sometimes slightly 

 clavate, pellucid-white, with frequently a yellowish-brown 

 tinge. Tentacles pellucid-white, with small spherical knobs, 

 twenty-five to thirty in number, a verticil of four or five round 

 the mouth, and another lower down ; the rest scattered and 

 frequently crowded on the lower part of the hydranth, some- 

 times with an indistinct tendency to a verticillate arrange- 

 ment. Gonophores oval, sessile, in a cluster of three to five 

 on the lower part of the hydranth among the tentacles. 



Hab. Wellington Harbour. On the roots and steins of 

 Macrocystis pyrifera. Type specimens in the Canterbury 

 Museum, Christchurch. 



