408 TUBULAR! A LARYNX. 



the gonosome depend merely on diSei'ent degrees of maturity and on differences of sex, it was 

 vain to expect correct specific diagnoses. The present species is exactly in this case ; much con- 

 fusion exists with regard to it, and it has been described under different names by different 

 observers, a confusion which, I believe, results in great part from regarding the differences 

 between the male and female colonies as indicative of two different species. 



I have no doubt of the identity of our species with the Tabularia figured more than a 

 hundred years ago by Ellis, under the appellation of " Corallina tubularia laryngi similis," and in 

 his posthumous work, edited by Solander, described under the binomial designation of Tubularia 

 larynx. Ellis's hydroid is referred by Pallas to Tubularia mtiscoicles of the ' Fauna Suecica,' an 

 identification which Liimeus's short diagnosis, " T. culmis sidjdichotomis totis annuloso-rugosis," 

 will hardly allow us to accept. Lideed, when we consider the very imperfect knowledge of the 

 Hydroida at the time of the publication of the ' Fauna Suecica,' we must see that there is more 

 reason to regard the Tubularia muscoldes of that work as an annulated species of Cori/ne than there 

 is to view it as a true Tubularia. The sufficiently characteristic figure of ElHs, however, though 

 without any representation of the gonosome, and his short but accurate description, leave no 

 doubt as to the hydroid the celebrated English observer had before him, and gives us a fixed and 

 definite point in the determination of its synonymy. 



I believe, also, that the Tubularia coroiiafa of Abiklgaard, figured in the ' Zoologica Danica,' 

 is identical with Ellis's species, notwithstanding the unbranched condition and tortuous marking 

 of the stems and the very short peduncles of the gonophores in the otherwise excellent figure of 

 the Danish naturalist, while I have little doubt that it is this same species which is described by 

 Mr. J. B. Harvey, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' under the name of Tubularia 

 gracilis. 



Hincks maintains the specific distinctness of Tubularia larynx and T. coronafa. I cannot 

 see, however, in the characters contrasted sufficient grounds for distinction. The more important 

 of them appear to me to be merely sexual differences. 



If the criticism just offered of the synonyms of our species be accepted, we have no alterna- 

 tive but to adopt for this hydroid Ellis's specific name of larynx, as given in his posthumous work 

 published under the care of Solander. 



When Tubularia larynx is examined in its living state, obscure annular corrugations may 

 usually be observed at short intervals on the stems ; but it is in dried specimens that these cor- 

 rugations become distinctly marked, and afford a character which, in the various descriptions of 

 the species, has taken a prominent place, and has suggested the specific designation given to it by 

 Ellis. 



Under the name of Tuhdaria coronafa the present species has been made the subject of 

 some of Van Beneden's researches, published in his ' Faune Littorale de Belgique,' and in which 

 his attention has been especially directed to the structure of the sporosac and the development of 

 the Actenula. 



I have obtained Tubularia laryux in abundance fi'om the lines of the deep-sea fishing boats 

 on the east coast of Scotland. It is also, however, an inhabitant of the Laminarian zone, and, 

 like some other tubularian hydroids, it appears to delight in an admixture of fresh water with 

 the sea, some of the finest specimens having been obtained from the lower reaches of estuaries. 

 Though a much humbler species than Tubularia indivisa, it is yet one of the most charming of 

 our British hydroids. When well developed it forms dense bushy tufts, which, with their rosy 



