252 ANTHOZOA HELIANTHOIDA. 



the Madrepora prol ifera of Miiller, which was found last summer by fishermen, their 

 lines having become entangled with it in the sea between the islands of Rum and 

 Egg." Edin. New Phil. Journ. July, 1846, p. 203. I am also informed by my 

 friend Mr. Alder, that there is a fine large specimen of Oculina prolifera in the New- 

 castle Museum. It was procured from Shetland, some years ago, by Mr. Geo. C. 

 Atkinson, who presented it to the Newcastle Natural History Society. The specimen 

 is, says Mr. Alder, eight or ten inches across. 



3. Mr. W. Thompson has sent me a living specimen and description of a new 

 species of Corynactis ; and a full account of a new genus of helianthoid zoophyte, of 

 which the Dysidca papillosa of my " British Sponges," p. 251, is the dried case or 

 skin. I must defer the description of these interesting novelties to an Appendix, to 

 have time to procure engravings of the figures. 



4. LUCERNARIA QUADRicoRNis, corpore elongato tortili, brachiis quatuor dichoto- 

 mis, apice tentaculatis. MM. Zool. Dan. prod. 227. Zool. Dan. i. 51. tab. xxxix. 

 Since this sheet was in proof I have received a communication from Mr. Joshua 

 Alder, in which he tells me that he found this Lucernaria adhering to stones at low- 

 water mark at Ardrossan, in May, 1846. The number of tentacula in each tuft ap- 

 peared to be from ten to fifteen, and certainly do not much exceed this number in the 

 specimen Mr Alder has sent me. 



Are L. quadricornis and L. fascicularis, p. 244, distinct species ? The main dis- 

 tinction is made to rest upon the number of tentacula in each fasciculus ; and the 

 character seems to be quite insufficient. In Mr. Alder's specimens the number does 

 not exceed twenty ; Miiller says that they vary from thirty to forty ; Mr. Forbes found 

 them to be seventy or more in what he considered to be L. fascicularis ; and Dr. 

 Fleming says that in this " the tentacula are upwards of a hundred in number." I 

 am inclined to conclude that L. fascicularis ought to be reduced to a synonym of L. 

 quadricornis. 



Fig. 57. 



