Zoology.'] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. IPolyzoa. 



PLATES 24, 25, 26. 



POLYZOA. 



The number of observers with the microscope is so considerable 

 in Victoria that it seemed to me particularly desirable to take 

 advantage of the microscopic skill and powers of observation of 

 some of my friends to present the means of readily identifying 

 some of the more easily preserved, beautiful, and interesting of the 

 minute members of the animal kingdom found in the colony. From 

 the Polyzoa presenting these recommendations in a high degree, 

 and an exact determination of our living species being hkewise of 

 great prospective interest to the geologist, as a necessary prelimi- 

 nary to the right understanding of the numerous species occurring 

 in our Tertiary formations, I several years ago mentioned to my 

 Mend Mr. P. H. MacGillivray, so well known for his studies of this 

 group, my desire to publish in this work all that were known on 

 our shores ; and I have to express my greatest thanks to him for 

 immediately presenting a series of his specimens to the National 

 Museum, and furnishmg me with his notes on them. The specimens 

 I have had most carefully figured, the three foUowng plates giving 

 the species of the genera Catenicetla and Memhranipora^ represented 

 in all the views that seemed needful for the easy and certain 

 recognition of the species. 



Plate 24, Fig. 1. 



CATENICELLA MARGARITACEA (Busk). 



[Genus CATENICELLA (Blainv.). (Sub-kingd. Mollusca. Class Polyzoa. Order In- 

 fundibulata. Sub-Order Cheilostomata. Fam. Catenicellida;.) 



Gen. CAar.— "Cells arising one from the upper and back part of another by a short 

 corneous tube, all facing the same way and forming dichotomously divided branches, of an 

 erect phytoid polyzoary ; cell at each bifurcation geminate ; each cell with two lateral pro- 

 cesses, usually supporting an avicularium. Ovicells either subglobose and terminal, or galeri- 

 form, and placed below the opening of a cell in front." The species of Catenicetla abound in 

 the Australasian seas, to which they are almost confined.] 



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