TUBULARIA POLYCARPA. 413 



Colour. — llvdraiitli niid C(ciu)s;irc red ; in some specimens nearly or quite colourless, 

 Habitat. — Attached to submerged bodies of various kinds. 

 Bathpiietrical Dhtrihulion. — Laminarian to deep-sea zones? 

 Localifj/. — Coast of Belgium, Van Benedcn. 



The TiiJjiilarla cnhimnrh of A'an Benedcn is a species with regard to which there is much 

 confusion. The Belgian naturalist assumes it to be identical with the Tubidaria calamaris 

 of Pallas, and the synonymes attached to his description are selected in accordance with this 

 view. 



Van Beneden's sjiecies, however, is altogether different from Pallas's Tidtutaria calamaris, 

 which is the same as the true Tubularia indivisa of Linnaeus. From this species it is at once 

 distinguished by its much smaller size, branched hydrocaulus, and short erect clusters of gono- 

 phores — supposing this condition to be that of mature individuals — as well as by the occurrence 

 of tentaculiform appendages, and of meridional bands on the gonophores. 



It approaches more nearly to the Tubularia larynx, but from this again it is separated by 

 the short, erect clusters of gonophores, and by the peculiar contractile, meridional bands of the 

 gonophore. 



It is to be regretted that we do not know more of these contractile bands than what we learn 

 from Van Beneden's figure and the descriptive paragraph which refers to it. According to Van 

 Beneden the bands are five in number, equidistant, and running in meridional lines along the 

 sides of the gonophore ; their normal number, however, is proba])ly only four. "When contracted 

 they give a lobed outline to the gonophore. 



There can be little doubt that two or more species have been confounded in Van 

 Beneden's description of his Tubularia calamaris. It is at all events certain that — led astray, 

 apparently, by an incorrect identification — he refers to it observations which various naturalists 

 have made regarding the true Tubularia indivisa. 



Professor Van Beneden states that his Tubularia calamaris is very aljundant on the Belgian 

 coasts. I have never met with any Tubularian referable to it on the British or other coasts 

 which I have explored. 



*^* 11. TUBULAUTA POLYCARPA, Allmau. 



TROPHOSOME. — Hydrocaulus attaining the height of al^out an inch and a 

 half, and a thickness of about half a line, unbranclied, or sparingly branclied near the 

 base, each stem crowned by a fluted coUar for the support of the hydranth, and 

 having its perisarc marked here and there by a few indistinct annulations ; hydro- 

 RUiZA consisting of an entangled plexus of thin tubes. Hydranth measuring about 

 half an inch from tip to tip of the basal tentacles, which are about twenty-four in 

 number. 



