ITYPROIDA. — BALE. 61 



naked sarcostyles and the rudimentary condition of the anterior 

 sai*cothec8e, that the genus was founded, Jickeli laying no stress 

 on the absence of the lateral sarcotheca?. But Torrey, while 

 disallowing Jickeli's genus on the ground of its inadequacy, 

 proceeds to re-establish the genus Biplocheilus, basing it on 

 precisely the same characters that Jickeli established his genus 

 upon. Such a position is of course untenable, and it is obvious 

 that if Kirchenpaueria is inadequate Diplocheilus, being com- 

 pletely synonymous with it, must be equally inadequate. 



But if observers ultimately agi^ee to accept the genus, then, 

 notwithstanding that Jickeli's account of it is clear, correct, and 

 unmistakable, while Allman founded his genus on a misinter- 

 pretation of structure, priority, if ascertainable, must decide 

 which name is to stand, I have not been able to settle this 

 question. The prefatory note to Allman's " Report on the 

 Hydroida dredged by H.M.S. ' Challenger ' during the years 

 1873-76 ; part i., Plumulariadre " is dated the 20th July, 1883, 

 but I have no means of ascertaining how long a period elapsed 

 between that date and the actual time of publication. Nor can 

 I find the precise date of publication of Jickeli's paper in the 

 " Morphologisehes Jahrbuch," though there is a notice of it in 

 the " Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society " for August 

 1883. The probability is that Jickeli has priority, but in any 

 case the merit of correctly defining the genus rests with him, 

 and is ample warrant for preferring the name given by him 

 until the question of priority can be settled. 



The following species are referable to the genus Kirchenpaueria, 

 Plumularia pinnata (Linn.), P. similis, Hincks, P. Mans, Mark- 

 tanner-Turneretscher, P. producta, Bale, Diplocheilus mirabilis, 

 Allman, and P. allmani, Torrey. While they all agree in 

 the possession of naked sarcostyles and the absence of the 

 lateral nematophores, the last three differ from the others in 

 having an intrathecal ridge, anterior in position, just below the 

 lip. It was on a misinterpretation of this ridge in I). mirabilis 

 that Allman founded his genus ; there is however nothing 

 peculiar about its form, which is precisely the same as found in 

 many Statopleans and in some typical Plumularia?, for example 

 in Lytocarpus philippinus, Aglaophenia plumosa, and Plumularia 

 balei, Bartlett. The presence of the intrathecal ridge is men- 

 tioned by Torrey in his description of the genus, but it has 

 never been regarded by observers as of generic importance, and 

 all the larger genera of the Plumularidse, — Aglaophenia, Lytocar- 

 pus, Halicomaria, and Plumularia — comprise species both 

 with and without this characteristic. 



