352 THE PLANKTON OF THE FARoE CHANNEL AND SHETLANDS. 



Haeckel as found in the Faroe Channel and named by him after Sir 

 John jMuiiay. 



'J'he colony is a liollow sphere of rather tough jelly of from o-Q to 4 mm. 

 diameter, and the zooids are dotted over it in little white spots, making it 

 quite easy to identify with the naked eye. The cell nests average 

 ■18 mm. diameter. The central capsule, of pale yellow-green colour, 

 occupies the greater part of every shell, and averages '11 mm. diameter. 

 In the centre is one oil globule of "05 mm. diameter. Between the 

 central capsule and shell is a thick layer of granulated protoplasm, and 

 outside the shell is another similar layer, from which issue pseudopodia 

 in all directions. Each shell individual appears to lie often in an alveole 

 with a distinct finely granulated boundary. The shells have an average 

 diameter of "18 mm. 



In the thick "pseudopodia mother-bed" lie the xanthellae, which also 

 occupy the pores of the shells. They are very numerous. Strands of 

 granular protoplasm radiate from the circumferential layer, throughout 

 the jelly mass. For the most part they are not thick, and extra- 

 capsular bodies are few and small. 



The shells have a general resemblance to the figure in Haeckel's 

 Challenger Report, and many of them answer to his description : — 



" ChQ3nicos2jhcera n. gen. — Collosphserida with simple shells, armed 

 on the outside with radial spines, forming elegant coronals around the 

 larger pores. 



" Sub-genus 1. Clieenieosphcerula. — A coronal of spines around every 

 pore of the shell" {Challenger Report, vol. xviii. p. 102). 



The examination of a large number of specimens shows that the 

 number of spines forming the corona is very variable, frequently six or 

 seven, but often less. In the same shell in which some of the pores 

 may have the typical corona others are found with few spines or none 

 at all. 



The pores are of unequal size, some large, others small, distributed 

 irregularly, but ten to twelve in the half-meridian. 



The coronal spines are very short and there are no spines between 

 the pores. 



It is probable that there is more than one variety of Ch. niurrayana. 

 All the kinds captured by me in the Faroe Channel and Shetland 

 waters can only be referred to the sub-genus " Chcenicosphan'ula " 

 (Haeckel), though it may be remarked that the classification founded on 

 the character of the shell only and the coronals of the pores is 

 necessarily a very artificial one. 



The form and disposition of the zooids in the calymma appear to 

 vary with the age of the colony. In some instances individuals are 

 met with having an oval shape side by side with spherical individuals. 



