82 PECTINATELLA MAGNIFICA. 



the free surface arranged in close irregular areolae. Polypi furnishetl with two lohes, conjoined 

 together in the form of U, enclosing the mouth at the base, and having, diverging from the 

 margin, from 50 to 80 sigmoid tentacula arranged at the summit in the double outline of 

 U, with the extremities of the arms of the latter inclining towards each other ; lip elevated, 

 ■with the base of the tentacular lobes and the lower-fourth of the inner margin of the tentacula 

 in the vicinity of the mouth, lake or dark rose-red colour; oesophagus colourless; stomach 

 longitudinally folded, yellowish-brown ; rectum dilatable, hyaline, its extremity slightly pro- 

 jecting, but retractile ; length from the bottom of the stomach to the top of the extended ten- 

 tacula, 1| line ; long diameter of tentacular expanse, i to J of a line ; length of tentacula, iV 

 of an inch ; breadth, -njW of an inch. 



" Ovum (statoblast) lenticular, brown, enclosed at the margin by a brownish-white 

 annular cellular sheath, ^J^ of an inch deep upon one side, ^o of an inch on the other, fur- 

 nished at its outer edge with 14 to 16 appendages, ^J^ inch long, terminating in a double, 

 rarely a triple, booklet. Ovum (statoblast), with its sheath, thin, discoidal, bent, ^V inch 

 broad, with its appendages enveloped in a hyaline, albuminoid mass ; when ripe, floating. 



" The surface of the polype mass has the appearance of being covered with a dense mucor 

 from the numerous tentacula projecting from it. Immediately beneath this, is a layer having a 

 faint roseate hue, from the red colouring in the vicinity of the mouth of the polypi; then suc- 

 ceeds a layer of a dirty-yellowish colour, arising from the stomachs of the animals ; beneath 

 which are numerous opaque, white, yellowish, and brown spots, which are ova in various 

 stages of development ; and, finally, the greater depth of the mass consists of a perfectly 

 hyaline, consistent, gelatinoid substance. 



" The animal is not so irritable as Phimafella, but is, like it, capable of entirely 

 retracting within its tube, in which state the stomach appears transversely wrinkled. 



" The ova, as they are detached from the mass, rise nearer to the surface of the water, 

 and float." 



The luxuriance of growth of PectinatcUa magnijica in the only locality which has as yet 

 been recorded for it, is especially worthy of attention. It would seem, indeed, that the masses 

 formed by it attain to a size which surpasses that of any other species. It is certainly one of 

 the noblest of the fresh-water Polyzoa ; and it is much to be hoped that its discoverer will not 

 long delay in giving us a figure, with anatomical details, of so beautiful and interesting an 

 animal. 



