PENNATULIDA. ^-^ 



I have also included amongst the synonyms Gondiil mirabilis Keren & Danielssen, and 1 am 

 able to do so with perfect surety, as I have had the opportunity of examining the only existing 

 specimen of this form, the type-specimen in the Bergen Museum. It is not difficult to see that this 

 specimen is nothing but a mutilated fragment oi Pavonaria finmarchica from which the calcareous 

 axis has been extracted; and thus originated the free edges of tlie four «longitudinal valves-. A 

 similar mutilation of fragments of other Pennatulids, for instance of Virgularia mirabilis^ may also 

 give results which, on superficial examination, have a very striking semblauce to being a distinct 

 organism. This i.Gonduh is either the upper end of a colony or a part near the top casually torn 

 from the axis, and attached to an Oculuia {Lophohclia) by the secreted slime ; the basal surface or 

 «attaching disc mentioned and figured loc. cit., does not exist at all on the fragment, which on the 

 part in question, shows only the surface of a wound; the • axial polyp is no terminal polyp at all, but 

 (by the mutilation perhaps?) an isolated polyp etc. When the long description of Koren and Danielssen 

 is read with the reservation, that in many things they have let themselves be deceived by preconceived 

 ideas, it will then be found that such features, as have not been quite disfigured by the mutilation, 

 agree very well with Pavonaria fiiDiiarcliica^ among other things for instance, the colour; but nobody, 

 who has not seen the original, would be able to suspect from the description the real state of the 

 case; now, however, every one who sees the specimen with the information given here, will certainly 

 recognize it Obviously, all the comments made by these authors and others on this Gdiidiil mirabilis 

 with regard to its relation to other Pennatulids or Alcyonarice, its being an intermediate form between 

 Pennatulids and Alcyouids etc., are now quite superfluous. i<Gdndul'^ and the systematic group based 

 upon it will have to disappear and be forgotten as soon as possible! 



Distribution. Pavonaria Jiiimarchica has been found in the fjord-regions of Norway, from 

 Finmark (Oxfjord) to the neighbourhood of Bergen; it seems also to extend farther south, into the 

 Skager Rak, to Bohuslan (at Koster, Grieg, I.e. p. ii); it has further been found at Iceland (Gaimard), 

 and south of Iceland, St. 47 of the Jngolf*, 61'' 32' N. Lat, 13° 40' W.Long., 950 fathoms; next it has 

 been found, frequently and in specimens more than one yard long'), on the east coast of North 

 America, especially on the fishing banks. It has been taken at depths from 60 to 980 fathoms. 

 According to the localities where it has hitherto been found, its territory seems to be the whole 

 northern part of the Atlantic, and there is every possible reason to expect that it will be found again 

 in several places at Iceland (i. e. at the south coast and especially at the Vestman-Islands), and on 

 the fishing banks round the Fseroe Isles. 



From the Atlantic another species has been described: P. a/ricana Studer (Ubers. Anth. Ale. 

 v; Gazelles. Berl. Monatsber. 1878, p. 672), 4 specimens of which were obtained on the west coast of Africa 

 at 10° 12.9' N. Lat., \-j° 25.5' W. Long, depth 360 fathoms. The possibility is not excluded that we have 

 here really the same species which has so wide a distribution farther north; the very low wings and 

 the small number of polyps in these (4, or 5 to 6), specially pointed out by Studer, can scarcely — 

 the number of polyps at all events cannot — be regarded as reliable specific differences from P. Jin- 

 marckica\ at the top, the wings become higher and the polyp-calyx more distinct; the teeth of the 

 polyp-calyx are not very distinct, but this is often the case in northern specimens also, and here also 



I) In the rich collection of P. fiiimaycluca of the Christiania Museum is a specimen from Oxfjord, 5 feet long. 



