THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 38. FEBRUARY 1851. 



VIII. — Notices of three undesci'ibed species of Polyzoa. 

 By George Busk, F.R.S. 



[With two Plates.] 



At the late meeting of the Britisli Association in Edinburgh, 

 Mr. Peach brought fonrard specimens and drawings of what he 

 regarded as a new species of Cellularia, and of which he was good 

 enough to give me a specimen for the purpose of examination 

 and comparison. The result has convinced me that Mr. Peach 

 was right in his conjecture, and that the species then produced, 

 though not first collected or noticed by him, is fully entitled to 

 a distinct specific place in the British faima. 



In Dr. Johnston's collection of Zoophytes now in the British 

 Museum, there are, included in the same sheet of paper with 

 the typical form of Cellularia neritina, or that from which the 

 figure, if not the description, in the ' British Zoophytes ' is taken 

 (pi. 60. figs. 3, 4), two or three specimens of a form, termed in 

 the Catalogue, a " slender transparent variety," I presume on 

 Dr. Johnston's authority, although this variety is not referred 

 to in the same terms in his work. This form, however, and 

 Mr. Peach's new species are identical, and it is so very dissimilar 

 in every respect to the C. neritina figured in pi. 60. fig. 3, 4 of 

 ' British Zoophytes,' and in pi. 19 of EUis's ' Corallines,' that I 

 think it is impossible to regard it merely as a variety of that 

 species. With respect to the latter, it may be remarked, that 

 eventually it may perhaps turn out to be but a doubtful native ; 

 for although it is very generally distributed throughout the globe, 

 it would appear to be more especially a southern form. It is 

 stated by Lamouroux to occur in the Mediterranean, and is found 

 in the Red Sea near Suez; it is also met with at Rio de Janeiro, 

 the Falkland Islands, Australia, New Zealand, the Auckland 

 Islands, and still further south, whence I have seen specimens in 



Ann. ^ Ma^f. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol.vn. 6 



