256 " ENDEAVOUR " SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



Hincks, in his " British Hydroid Zoophytes, "i treated 

 L. gracillima (though with some doubt) as a variety of L. 

 fruticosa (Sars), but observers in the northern seas, who are 

 familiar with both forms, are now practically unanimous in 

 rejecting the determination. Following Hincks I included 

 L. fruticosa in the " Catalogue " as an Australian species, but 

 L. gracillima must now take its place. Allman and Thompson 

 have also followed Hincks' nomenclature. 



Hincks writes: — " I have examined the Lafoea from Bass's 

 Straits in Mr. Busk's collection, referred to by Alder (North. 

 & Durh. Cat.), and have little doubt that it is identical with 

 the present species." Alder had written: — "A Carwpannlaria 

 from Bass's Straits, of which Mr. Busk has kindly sent me 

 a drawing, is very similar to this, if not identical." The 

 hydroid from Bass Strait, which Busk mentioned in the 

 " Voyage of the Rattlesnake," under the name of Campanu- 

 laria dumosa is presumably that referred to by Alder and 

 Hincks. 



Family SERTULARIID^. 



In the First Part of this Report I have dealt with the 

 Sertulariidae from the point of view which was usually adopted 

 prior to 1893, when systematists were agreed that the proper 

 basis for generic distinction was the mode in which the 

 hydrothecse are arranged in the colony. This unanimity was 

 disturbed in 1893, when Levinsen advanced the view that a 

 truly natural arrangement must depend on certain characters 

 of the individual hydrothecse, namely the opercular structure 

 and the correlated condition of the hydrotheca-margin. The 

 views propounded by Levinsen were at once adopted by 

 several observers (mostly those whose principal work lay 

 among the northern species), but were rejected by others ; 

 and in 1897 Schneider, in his paper on the hydroids of Rovigno, 

 strongly upheld the validity of the system founded on the 

 arrangement of the hydrotheca?, or what Levinsen calls the 

 colonial or zoarial characters. 



Ever since Levinsen put forward his views the classification 

 of the Sertulariidse has been in a condition which can only be 

 described as chaotic. Many observers, while unprepared to 

 accept his conclusions without reserve, have nevertheless felt 

 obliged to recognise their validity to a greater or less extent, 

 dependent on individual opinion, and the result has been that 

 few are precisely in accord on all points, so that there are 

 almost as many systems of classification as there are observers. 



1. Hincks— Hist. Brit. Hydroid Zooph., 1868, p. 202. 



I 



