NOTES ON A PECU@LIAR FORM OF POLYZOA, 5 
besides which are only some free nucleiform particles 
(fettkropskulor). 
It is not clear, in Professor Smitt’s description, whether 
the specimen of Bugula umbella, from which it was drawn, 
had or had not a simple peduncle. But, so far as my 
imperfect knowledge of Swedish enables me to say, I should 
gather that he thinks it possible that the growth may be 
more or less detached or free, the radical fibres only pene- 
trating the loose muddy bottom without, as in most other 
cases in the Polyzoa, the fibres being attached to any fixed 
object. 
The above brief summary comprises, I believe, the main 
points hitherto made known with regard to the structural 
peculiarities of Ainetoskias. My object in the present com- 
munication is to show how far the accounts given by the 
eminent and excellent observers above cited are in accord 
with what I conceive, from direct observation of two closely 
allied forms, to be the actual conditions. 
The two forms that have come under my own observa- 
tion from the “ Challenger” collection are: 
1. Kinetoskias cyathus, C. W. T., and 
2, Kinetoskias pocillum, n. sp. (fig. 3). 
1. B. cyathus.—The general aspect and dimensions of this 
remarkable and beautiful form are well shown in Sir C. W. 
Thomson’s account of it,! and to which, so far as external 
characters go, I have but very little to add. The zoarium 
consists of an elegant infundibuliform, vase-like expansion, 
constituted of numerous, long, sparsely dichotomising, 
biserial branches, springing from an apical point at the bottom, 
and curving gently outwards till, towards the extremities, 
they are curled round upon themselves, the anterior aspect 
of the zoccia looking outwards. This infundibuliform por- 
tion of the zoarium is supported on a point, a little to one side 
of the actual apex, upon the summit of a terete peduncle, 
about four or five inches in height, and from about half an 
inch in diameter at the bottom, tapering to a diameter of less 
than the one tenth of an inch at the summit. At the lower part 
of the vase-like cup the branches, to a height of about an 
inch, are united, like the ribs of an umbrella, by a delicate 
transparent membrane, stretching acrossfrom one to the other. 
This membranous cup is brought toa point at bottom, a little 
to one side of the spot from which the branches diverge, and 
it appears to be quite closed, a very tight constriction exist- 
ing at its junction with the peduncle. The latter, though 
LL, ¢ 
