Tunic at a. 197 



The, Test is hard. It has very much less sand inside than on the 

 surface (fig. 5), but there is some throughout. 



The Branchial sac has many rows of large stigmata (fig. 6). 



Locality/. — " Cape Adare, 26 fathoms, 14th November, 1899." This 

 species is, I think, distinct from the last. It is very different in 

 texture and habit, and the appearance of the colonies is quite 

 distinct. They were found together. 



There were three colonies of this species ; the dimensions above 

 are those of the largest ; all are firm and solid to the touch. 



Family DISTOMIDAE. 



Distaplia ignota. (Plate XX., figs. 7-9.) 



(?) ignotus, Herdman, ' Challenger' Rep., Pt. IL, p. 251, 1886. 



? Julinia australis, Caiman, Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci., 1894, p. 1. 



In the collection brought home by the ' Challenger ' expedition 

 from the Strait of Magellan, there were two large Polyclinid-like 

 colonies which I had to report upon. The species was sufficiently 

 distinct and striking to render me certain that it was undescribed, 

 but the specimens were in such very bad condition anatomically that 

 I felt it impossible to refer the new species with certainty to its 

 proper genus. Consequently I described and figured it under the 



heading, " (?) ignotus, n. sp." (see 'Challenger' Eep., Part II., 



p. 251). I had also examined a specimen in the British Museum 

 collection (measuring about 3 feet in length), labelled from the 

 Antarctic, which I found to belong to the same species, and which 

 curiously enough was also, like the ' Challenger ' specimens, in a 

 very bad state of preservation ; and I made the suggestion, in the 

 ' Challenger ' Eeport, that all these colonies had been dead and partially 

 decomposed when they were found and put in spirit. My remarks 

 on the species ended with the sentence, " It is to be hoped that 

 some future explorers in the Southern Seas may be successful in 

 obtaining specimens of this, probably the largest known species of 

 compound Ascidian, in a living condition." The present collection 

 contains no less than four large colonies or fragments of this same 

 species, and it is most disappointing to find that they also are in 

 a decomposed condition, so that very little more can be made 

 out with certaiuty in regard to the minute anatomy. Still, I think 

 I am now justified, from the specimens I have before me, in saying 

 that this gigantic species must be referred to the family Distomidae, 

 and probably to the genus Dista;plia ; consequently I now, until 



