VORTICLAVA PROTEUS. 373 



gradually tapering from its attached to its distal end. Htdranth witli five distal 

 and ten proximal tentacles, the proximal tentacles about three times the lengtli of 

 the distal. 



GONOSOME. —Unknown. 



Colour. — White. 



Habited. — In a rock pool attached to Coralhna otficinalii. 

 BafJii/mefrical Distribution. — Litoral zone. 



Localities. — Coast of Northumberland, Mr. Alder; Felixstowe, on the Suffolk coast, 

 Mr. Busk. 



Though Mr. Alder regards the solitary condition of the single specimen on which he 

 founded hi.s genus Vortidava as a permanent character, Mr. Hiucks believes that this condition 

 indicates only an immature state of the hydroid. Hincks founds this view on a specimen of an 

 undetermined species of Vorticlava, which he obtained on the southern coast of Devonshire, and 

 which consists of two hydranths, one fully grown, the other immature, and both nnited by a 

 common adherent base. 



I have never seen a specimen of Vortidava Iiuniilis. The diagnosis given above is compiled 

 from Mr. Alder's description of it, supplemented by some observations of Hincks. 



2. Vorticlava peoteus, Slrethill Wright. 



Vorticlava proteus, — Wriytit, in Quart. Joiirn. Micr. Sci., vol. iii, n. s., p. 5, pi. v, figs. 



1 — 6. Hindis, Brit. Hydr. Zooph., p. 133, pi. xxiii, 

 fig. 3. 



TROPHOSOME. — Htdrocaulus when extended cylindrical. Hydranths with 

 five distal and nine proximal tentacles. 



GONOSOME. —Not known. 



Habitat. — Attached to stones in the sea. 



Batliymetrical Distribution. — Coralline zone. 



Locality.— W\Q "Pluke Hole," Firth of Forth ; Dr. Strethill Wright. 



Under the name of Vortidava proteus, Dr. Strethill Wright has described a hydroid which 

 he regards as distinct from Alder's Vortidava kumilis. In Dr. Wright's description, however, 

 which can hardly be regarded as a specific diagnosis, it is difficult to recognise any character 

 which can be accepted as pointing to a specific distinction from Vortidava humilis, for the great 

 mutability of form which he assigns to his hydroid may equally belong to the latter, though no 

 allusion is made to it in Mr. Alder's description. The slender cylindrical fonn of the stem when 



