PENNATULID.E : PA VON ARIA. 165 



Oban, the bottom beino- mud, in wliich it doubtless stands erect after 

 the manner of Virgidaria. Before a fuller description can be drawn 

 up, specimens must be examined in the living state or preserved 

 in fluid. In the meantime I offer the following remarks on the 

 history of the species. 



" It was first described by Bohadsch in bis interesting work '■ De 

 quibusdam animalibus marinis' (1761), who states that he procured 

 it from the fishermen at Naples, Avho call it ' Penna del pesce ^Jrt- 

 vone." He describes his specimen as two feet ten inches in length, 

 although broken short. He gives a rude figure taken from a living 

 specimen. He describes the skeleton as friable, " ex pasta veluti 

 farinacea compactum videtur." — " Os hocce quadratum, candidum, 

 membrana lutescens, falso sapore donata immediate investit, quam 

 cutis coriacea dimidiam circiter lineam crassa undique circumdat. 

 Inter utramque membranam in vivo animali quemdam humorem con- 

 tinent, atque formam totius PemicB cylindricam esse opiuor, et qui- 

 dem ex eo, quod Pennce ruhrce, &c. mortuae et exsiccata) truncus 

 quoque aliter configuratus sit, quam in Penna viva observetur" (p. 

 112). He states that the polypes have eight white, not very promi- 

 nent tentacula, and are arranged on three sides of the trunk. In 

 1766 Pallas gave a diagnosis of this zoophyte, under the appropriate 

 name of Pennatida quadrangidaris, in his ' Elenchus Zoophytorum,' 

 adding the remark, " vidi fere bipedale.' Subsequent authors seem 

 to have described it at second hand." — E. Forhes. 



In a letter I have recently received from Professor Forbes, he 

 writes thus of the Pavonaria : — " It lives erect, its lower extremity, 

 as it were, rooted in slimy mud, at a depth of from twelve to fifteen 

 fathoms, near Oban, Argyleshire, and only there, so far as we know. 

 The largest specimen taken was forty-eight inches in length. 



" The whole rod when alive, invested with a fleshy skin, is very 

 slimy. Its base or root is cylindrical, of a yellow colour, and ter- 

 minates somewhat obtusely and bulbous. The lowest polypes on the 

 rod are very small, and in a single row on each side, but they gra- 

 dually increase in size, and become more numerous, till they form 

 oblique transverse rows of four, five, or six polypes in a row, the 

 outermost being largest. The back of the rod is yellowish, smooth, 

 and free from polypes. The polypiferous part is oi a rose colour. 



" Each polype is slender and cylindrical. It has eight tentacula 

 surrounding an oval disk. They are pinnate, (the pinnce about 

 twenty on each side, and crenate,) and retractile within a sheath, the 

 margin of which is strengthened by interlacing spicula, forming 



