MYRIOTHELID^. 381 



MYRIOTHELID^. 



TROPHOSOME. — Hydrantii solitary, attached ; tentacles scattered, capitate. 

 Htdrocaulus not developed. 



GONOSOME. — ^GoNOPnoEES fixed sporosacs borne on special processes which 

 spring- from the body of the hydranth. 



MYEIOTHELA, Sars. 



Name. — From /.wploc, numl)crless, and OijXi), a ni[)[)le ; in alhision to the great number of 

 nipple-like tentacles in the hydranth. 



LucERNARiA, — Fubricius. 

 Candelabrdji, — -De Bhdnville. 

 Arum, — Vigors. 

 Spadix, — Gosse. 



TROPHOSOME. — Htdraxth claviform or sub-cylindrical, springing from a broad 

 adherent htdrorhiza, which is invested with a peris arc ; tentacles very small, 

 papilliform. 



GONOSOME. — Processes which support the sporosacs naked, springing from 

 the hydranth at the proximal side of the tentacles. 



I have never had the good fortune of meeting with an example of this remarkable genus. 

 It was first accm-ately defined by Sars,' to whom we owe the name of Myriothela ; but, as 

 Mr. W. Stimpson has pointed out,'' the first example of the genus was described by Fabricius,^ 

 whose Lucernaria pimjgia is certainly a Myriothela, probably identical with the Myriothela 

 arctica of Sars. 



De Blainville, seeing that Fahricius's animal had no relation with Lucernaria, constituted for 

 it, in 1S34, his genus Candelahrum , and as this name has priority over Myriothela, it is accepted 

 by Agassiz as the legitimate name of the genus. 



' Sars, ' Beretning om en Zoologisk Reise i Loftoen,' 1850. 

 - See Agassiz, ' Coiit. Nat. Hist. U. S.,' vol. iv, p. 34'1, note. 

 ' 'Fauna Gioeulandica,' p. 313. 



