484 IJKVl.SION OF THE AXINELLID^^ i., 



are almost as frequently scattered as arranged serially; the con- 

 sistency, also, is comparatively firm. Tlie branches vary from 

 (rarely) cylindrical to much compiessed, and are usually some- 

 what lenticular in cross-section. The pores are almost or quite 

 as closely situated and numerous as in the typical specimen, but 

 for the most part they are not arranged distinctly in gi-oups. 

 The spirula? are peculiar in the fact that they are much less 

 closely coiled than in any other example of the genus, the shape 

 of most of them approaching more or less to that of a contort §; 

 more or less Q- or (-shaped forms are also common, but straight 

 or nearly straight rods are extremely rare. Scarce (though bj' 

 no means rare) microstrongyla are present, vaiying from 9 to 

 16/i in length and from 2 to 4// in stoutness, and almost invari- 

 ably centrotylote. (A photograph of the macerated skeleton is 

 reproduced in PI. xxiii., fig.8). 



The two specimens R.N. 1000 are much alike in general habit, 

 — which probabh' accounts for their being registered under the 

 same number, — and differ from all the other specimens, with the 

 exception of R.N.. 'Sii'2, 983, and 984, by the occasional coales- 

 cence of their branches; the branches are slender (5 to 8 mm. in 

 diameter), gradually tapered, and not at all compressed: and the 

 surface is somewhat uneven and slightly granular. Neverthe- 

 less, in one of the specimens the pores are arranged (PI. xxviii., 

 fig.2) very nearly as in the typical specimen, while in the other 

 they are distributed singly (PI. xxviii., fig. 1 ) almost in the same 

 manner as in 7'. digitatus. In both, microstrongyla are exceed- 

 ingly rare. 



In R.N. 983 and 984 the arrangement of the pores (PI. xxviii., 

 figs. 3, 4) is intermediate between that obtaining in R.N. 1061 

 and that characteristic of T. diyitatus var. strongylatus. The 

 former specimen consists solely of two long branches (one simple, 

 the other with a partially coalescent secondary branch towards 

 its upper extremity), measuring respectively 200 and 300 mm. in 

 length, and both arising almost independently from a small 

 common disc of attachment without the intervention of a stalk. 

 The branches are only 4 mm. in diameter proximally and increase 

 in stoutness upwards very gradually, the larger one attaining a 



