116 Rev. Canon Norman — A Month on 



In a specimen incrusting tlie flat leaves of a Fucus the 

 margins are much more thickened than usual, the zooecia have 

 their areas brought close together, the hinder calcareous punc- 

 tate portion of the zooecium being reduced to the small portion 

 which gives support to the great seta, at the base of which a 

 few puncta may still be seen ; but here and there even these 

 few are absent (PL VI. fig. 5). A remarkable modification in 

 the opposite direction takes place in var. Rf.aumuriana^ where 

 the zooecia are elevated into a semierect position and the 

 punctate crust is carried forwards and forms side walls on 

 which rest the usual margins of the area (PI. VII. fig. 1). 



In the seas of our own islands this species has only been 

 met with in an incrusting state, and Mr. Hincks has remarked* 

 that " amidst all the varieties of this protean species from 

 various parts of the world " he had never seen the erect free- 

 growing form until he received a specimen from New Zealand. 

 Nowhere have the seas been more closely examined for 

 Polyzoa than around our own islands. It is therefore very 

 curious that, while free-living states of this species are met 

 with on the coasts of West France, of Belgium, and of 

 Norway, no instance of such growth should have ever 

 occurred in our seas. 



There is also a very curious reproductive difference as 

 connected with thegenus Eleetra and forms which are certainly 

 at least very closely allied. In the North Atlantic no ovicell 

 has ever been known on any specimen of either of the three 

 species which I would refer to this genus, E. pilosa, E. La- 

 croixii (including M. monostachys) , and E. catenaria ; and 

 this fact has deep significance. Yet Mr. Waters has described 

 from New-Zealand Tertiary beds forms so like to the fore- 

 going that he has even referred them to the same sj)ecie3 as 

 Memhranipora monostachys and Memhranipora Lacroixii, var. 

 grandis; in these reproduction takes place by means of 

 ooecia f. The absence of ooecia in recent forms would not, 

 moreover, seem to be confined to North-Atlantic species. I 

 cannot recall to mind any out of many exotic recent species 

 which I should refer to the genus in which ocecia are known. 

 It is probable therefore that Wrters's species must find their 

 place in another genus, notwithstanding the close resemblance 

 of such a form as that shown in his fig. 3 to the genus Eleetra. 



* Ann. & Mafj. Nat. Hist. ser. o, vol. x. 18S2, p. 169. 



t Waters, "Tertiary Choilostomatous IJrvozoa from Xow Zoalaud," 

 Quiu-t. Joiirn. (5ool. Soc. vol. xliii. 1887, p. 45 (.)/. monostachys, pi. vi. 

 tigs, t), 3; M. LacroLvii, var. (/randis, pi. vi. tig. 1). 



