,2 PENNATULIDA. 



Stage, 30""" long, with wings with 3 polyps, a quite short pen with cle\eloped polyps, but a long rudi- 

 ment-region; here also two naked axial ends project from the sarcosoma at the top, one quite short 

 broken off, the other rather long (5 — 6"") and e\idently in process of decay, being plainh' divided 

 into a series of short, looseh' connected pieces, like joints'). 



In a complete specimen, 423""'" long (the peduncle 80'"'"), with wings with six polyps, from the 

 Norwegian coast off Arendal, the wings of the left side are normal, whilst those of the right side, 

 even quite down in the rudiment-region are placed in an inverted position, so that the cahx- 

 openings and the tentacles of the polyps are turned towards the peduncle. It is well-known that 

 the wings have a considerable power of motion, and I have often seen that the\- ma}- also be turned 

 in sucli a wa\- as to make the polyps point downward.s, but here the question is somewhat different; 

 in the present specimen, tlie group of lateral zooids belonging to the inverted wings is placed above 

 the wing instead of below it, and b\- serial sections I ha\e convinced myself that both zooids and 

 pohps here turn the ventral side upward, pointing towards the top of the colon)-, whilst the 

 zooids and polyps of the correctl>- situated wings of the left side are placed normally with the dorsal 

 side turned upwards. The same abnormality is seen in two fragments of the upper part of the pen 

 in a specimen with four polyps in the -wings, from Bohuslan, Flatholmen, and in another fragment 

 from the .same localit}-, with three polyps in the wings, in which latter the abnormal side is disting- 

 uishable as the right one, the end of the stalk being preserved. The last-mentioned specimens belong 

 to the Museum in Stockholm. An abnormality, probabh- of a somewhat similar kind, is mentioned by 

 KoUiker in a specimen of Halipicris christii (Mongr. j:). 244); I have found no statement elsewhere of 

 such features having been observed before. 



As to the synonymy of H mirabilis, I have without any hesitation referred the f. Ljung- 

 viaimi of Kolliker to this species. He has established his species on a fragment (in the Museum in 

 Stockholm) from the Azores, and he himself expresses (Monogr. p. 197) a strong doubt as to its specific 

 difference from V. mirahilis\ after all, I think that its geographical occurrence, so far distant from 

 what is otherwise known for iiiirabilis^ has been the special reason of its being established as a separate 

 species. Later, the correctness of this species has hardh- been carefull>- examined; it has, so far as I 

 know, only been mentioned later by Studer as having been obtained in fragments by «rHirondelle» 

 in the Ha_\- of Gascony, without, however, an\- fm-ther information as to its structure, and by 

 Win leaves from the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Catal. :\Iar. Inv. East. Canada, 1901, p. 33). So far as I 

 can discern from the careful description of this ^.species by Kolliker, there is no sufficient reason for 

 retaining it. The same can also be said for the V. multiflora Kner of the Adriatic, which Kolliker 

 himself seems to be most inclined to regard as a local variet>-. Onlv the fact that the specimen in 

 our Musemn, in spite of its size, is provided with remarkabh- small pohps, could raise some doubt in 

 nu mind ; the polyps, however, are just as small in a large fragment of V. mirabilis from the Vestman 

 Islands (Tli. Jonsson); but this specimen has evident!}- been somewhat dried. No doubt also the 

 Virgularia sp. mentioned b\- P. iMscher, from the west coast of France (Loire-Iuferieure, at Croizic), 



'I A double calcareous axis in Vii-g. mirabilis has been observed before iu a single specimen by Dalyell (1. c. p. 187) 

 ri. .\I,III, fig. 8. .The bones were unequal, a longer and a shorter, the longer extending ,so regularly, that the shorter might 

 have been almost considered a fragment accidentally or supeniaturally introduced along with it amidst the fleshy substance -. 



