PENNATULIDA. jr 



The specimen Nr. i is distinguished by having rather a strong red tinge, so that it approaches 

 somewhat the common phosphorea\ both polyps and zooids contain red spicules in considerable num- 

 bers; the polyps are red, but with white calyx-teeth and white lateral edges; the edges of each wing 

 are therefore white, and the red surface is streaked with narrow white lines marking the boundaries 

 between the coalesced polyps. A quite similar distribution of the colours, only with a far deeper red, 

 is not uncommon in typical phosphorea specimens from the Kattegat. Further, this specimen has kept 

 both terminal polyp and terminal zooid, as is also the case with the specimens Nr. 4 and Nr. 9. In 

 the specimens Nr. 3, 7, 12, 15, 16, and 17 the quite distinct terminal zooid is preserved in its full 

 development, but the terminal polyp is transformed into a zooid, either of equal size with the terminal 

 zooid (Nr. 15), .somewhat smaller than this (Nr. 12), not much smaller (Nr. 3) — or quite atrophied 

 (Nr. 7, 16, 17). Although the specimens in question, with the exception of Nr. i, are large and must 

 be considered as fully developed, the features mentioned are quite uncommonly distinct. The other 

 specimens show much altered features at the upper end of the rhachis; some specimens (e. g. Nr. 6) 

 show very beautifully a number (4) of large . top-zooids», amongst which, probably, both the terminal 

 polyp and the terminal zooid are to be sought. In the specimens Nr. 2 and Nr. 7, the i)eculiarity is 

 found that one of the dorsal zooids near the middle of the edge of the rhachis is developed as a soli- 

 tary polyj), 7 and fully 4""" long respectively. The specimen Nr. 14 approaches somewhat the «lanci- 

 foliatex form '). j\Iost specimens contain ripe sexual organs, and some seem to contain larvse. 



Occurrence. This light-coloured form has been taken by the « Porcupine^, as mentioned, on 

 62° i' N. Lat. 5° 19' W. Long., accordingly E. of the Faeroe Isles, at a depth of 114 (Engli.sh) fathoms. 

 All the .specimens here mentioned are from the Vestman-Islands; with regard to Nr. 2, 5, 8, 10, 

 II, 13, and 14 there is no information as to the depth or the bottom; but to judge from the attached 

 particles it must have been black Basalt-mud ; Nr. 9 has been taken at 50 — 60 fathoms, E. of the 

 Vestman-Islands, 2' '2 miles E.N.E. of Storhofdi; the others have been taken (the <^Diana:, 1900, St. 41) 

 on clay-bottom s at a depth of 68 — 70 fathoms; Nr. 17, the ■ Thor», 1903, vSt. 169, 63'' 24-5' N. Lat. 20° 1' 

 W. Long., depth 120 — 158 m., ooze. All the specimens have been taken during the sunnner months 

 (July, August). 



This pale or white variety probably occurs on restricted localities within the wide extended 

 area of the species, but with regard to the more particular conditions under which it is produced and 

 thrives, we have no information which could render any certain statement possible. The question can 

 scarcely be of a casual albinism, as all the specimens known from the Vestman-Islands belong to the 

 same pale variety, and in its red forms Pcnn. phosphorea is altogether unknown hitherto from any 

 locality at or round Iceland or the Faeroe Isles. Other discoveries of white forms of Penn. phosphorea 

 are, so far as I know, only referred to by two authors. KoUiker describes a white specimen in his 

 Monograph, p. 133; it belongs to the Museum in Copenhagen, and I have thus been able to compare 

 it with the form from the Vestman-Islands; it is very different from this latter, and Kolliker with 

 good reason has determined it as a subvariety alba of Penn. ph. var. lancifolia. Unfortunately, we 



I) When Marshall and Fowler give 4-2"" as the greatest length of a pinnula in their specimens, this is surely due 

 to a misprint; such a length is scarcely found in any form of P. phosphorea, and the figures on Plates 31 and 32 give also 

 a length of only ca. 14—1511111. 



