4I2 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



resemble the type in general appearance. In the Kerguelen specimens from the Eaton 

 collection, recorded by Busk (1879), the four distal spines are stouter than is usual, 

 there are no lateral spines, and the connecting tubes are mostly not quite so short as in 

 the typical specimens. A single rather compressed avicularium is present, projecting 

 basally, and branched rootlets are numerous and extremely short. From the limited 

 material available there seems no reason for separating this from B. inermis, especially 

 as a specimen from Port William, Falkland Islands (U.S. National Museum), has 

 exactly similar spines. This Falkland specimen has short connecting tubes, as in the 

 type, and no avicularia. 



Very shallow, cap-like ovicells are numerous in the Eaton Kerguelen material (see 

 99.7. 1. 9 1 8). The edges of the ectooecium and entooecium are seen in frontal view, 

 and, owing to the shortness and distal position of the distal zooecial connecting tube, 

 the ovicell makes contact with the distal zooecium without having a tubular prolongation 

 such as is found in B. magellanica. The fertile zooecia contain large embryos. 



Calvet did not make it clear whether the avicularia of his specimen appeared on the 

 basal surface, and his comparison with B. elongata and B. quadricornuta suggests that 

 they were in the more normal frontal position. The identity of his specimens is thus 

 very uncertain, especially as this would be the only record of the species south of the 

 Antarctic Convergence (see Table 3, p. 479). 



5. Beania inermis var. unicornis var.n. Fig. 33 A. 

 Station distribution. Sub- Antarctic: South Atlantic Ocean, Sts. 1321, WS 84, WS 85, WS 776. 

 Geographical distribution. Magellanic Region; Patagonian Shelf (Discovery). 

 Holotype. St. WS 84, Falkland Islands. 



These specimens agree with typical Beania inermis in their avicularia. The marginal 

 spines are longer and stouter, crossing over at their tips (Fig. 33 A). The oral spines 

 consist of one pair of distal spines, as the next spine on each side, though it may be 

 a little stouter than the other marginal spines, slopes inwards. The zooecia do not have 

 the wavy outline usually seen in the typical form, and the connecting tubes are longer 

 and may bear two or three spines, like the marginal spines of the zooecia. There is 

 a spinous structure directed outwards and backwards from the middle of the free edge 

 of the operculum. 



These features give the colony a distinctly different appearance from that of typical 

 B. inermis, and, in the material available, are constant and definite. 



Branched rootlets are present. 



In one specimen (St. 1321) a few of the connecting tubes are somewhat dilated and 

 have an oval uncalcified frontal area surrounded by spines. Their appearance suggests 

 abortive zooecia, and it may be that the otherwise normal tubes that bear two or three 

 spines (Fig. 33 A) are more extreme examples of the same condition. 



In some ways var. unicornis resembles B. vanhoffeni Kluge (1914, p. 647), described 

 from a specimen from Simons Bay, but in Kluge 's species the distal marginal spine on 

 each side is erect and much enlarged. These erect, stout spines are present in a specimen 



