70 



DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Text-fig. 28. Characteristic nectophores of a new Physonect Bargmannia elongata, the other parts of which are unknown. 

 A, B, specimen 'Discovery II' St. 681, x 3-2; C, D, specimen from 'Discovery II' St. 699, 370-0 m., x6'3; E, F, specimen 

 from 'Discovery II' St. 1769, 1000-750 m., x 3-5. The muscular lamella is attached along the pecked line in figs. E and F. 



Forskalia Kolliker, 18536 



Very little advance has been made in our meagre knowledge of species of Forskalia since Bedot 

 (1893), who was familiar with living Mediterranean forms, reviewed the genus. He recognized five 

 species, three of them Mediterranean ones. I am familiar with one living Mediterranean species, whose 

 identification depends, as a field-mark, on a lemon-yellow coloured spot at the junction of the ventral 

 radial and circular canals of the nectophores. This spot is not visible after fixation in formalin. 

 Schneider (1898) maintained that this species should bear the name ophiura Delle Chiaje 1829. Bedot 

 called it edzvardsii Kolliker, 18536. I have also often seen preserved nectophores of the leuckarti 

 type, namely those with a small disc-shaped rete on the pedicular (apical) canal. 



Very little information has been given in descriptions about the shape and disposition of bracts, 

 but I believe that bracteal characters will prove to have great systematic value. 



Leuckart (1854) gave the impression that, in F. contorta 1 , the bracts on the polyp-stalk are very 

 numerous. In F. edwardsii I estimate that there are ten, including the small distal buds. We really 

 know very little about the different species. 



That quantitative processes of change in animal tissues produce allometric growth-rates is well 

 known. Child and others have done much classical work on the growth gradients in gymnoblast 



1 Redescribed by Bedot (1893) as F. leuckarti. 



