APPENDIX. 343 



No. IV. 



An Account of the Polyzoa, and Sertularian Zoo- 

 phytes, collected in the Voyage of the Rattlesnake, on 

 the Coasts of Australia and the Louisiade Archipelago^ 

 Sfc. By George Busk, F.R.S, 



This collection includes about eighty-five species, dis- 

 tributed in twenty-nine genera, and may perhaps be 

 regarded as the largest and most interesting of the kind 

 ever brought to this country. 



When it is stated that seventy-eight of the species are 

 new or undescribed, the number will appear extraordinarily 

 great, but when the comparatively neglected state of 

 exotic Zoophytology is considered the wonder will be much 

 diminished, and still further, as it may safely be assumed, 

 that many of the species here given as new have been 

 previously noticed, though so insufficiently described, as 

 in the absence of figures not to admit of correct identifi- 

 cation. 



Making, however, a considerable deduction on this 

 account, the remainder will still stamp the present collec- 

 tion with extreme value. As an instance, may be cited 

 the genus Catenicella, of which this collection affords about 

 fifteen species, and of which certainly not more than three 

 have been previously noticed in any way, and of these no 

 sufficient descriptions or figures are extant by which even 

 that small number could be identified. The explanation 

 of this is perhaps to be sought in the circumstance that 

 the species of Catenicella are deep sea forms, and oidy to 

 be obtained by dredging in deep water — very few bein 

 apparently found on the shores. 



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