8 PENNATULIDA. 



events, have the common feature that their polyps are provided with a well developed calyx, the 

 abaxial part of which is fully formed, often with calyx-teeth, while its axial side is more or less con- 

 nected with the stem; young stages of Protoptilum, or such simple species as Prot. carpcntcri (if it is 

 not only a young stage also) resemble Distichoptilum very closely; the arrangement of the zooids, 

 however, is quite different, as Protoptilum is provided with numerous dorsal zooids, and moreover with 

 zooids everywhere on the rhachis between the polyps, while Distichoptilum has only lateral zooids, two 

 for each polyp. 



The other forms of the group Spicata in which the polyp has developed a calyx: Funiculina. 

 Halipteris, and Stachyptilum, seem to me to show no close relation, so that they certainly cannot 

 as has been done by Bourne -- be placed in one family. On the contrary, the genus Stachyptilnni 

 K611. seems to me to be altogether a stranger in this group; as far as I can see from the description 

 and figures of Kolliker, I think it nmst be referred to the first group, Pennatulea, and be placed there 

 in the family Pennatulidce; the whole form of the colony and the arrangement of polyps and zooids 

 is as in Pennatula: the polyps are placed quite regularly in oblique series, but the members of one 

 series are not mutually coalesced; the dorsal surface of the stem is covered with zooids, as are also 

 the lateral and ventral intervals between the polyps; apart from a slighter development of the points 

 of the calyx it looks like a Pennatula with free polyps. 



The genus Funiculina occupies a quite isolated position by wanting real zooids; only the quite 

 young polyps appear temporarily as zooids; by and by they increase in size, get fully developed ten- 

 tacles, form sexual organs, and become perfect polyps; the arrangement and growth of the individuals 

 is not regular, although they, as it were, tend towards a regular arrangement in transverse series. 

 From all these facts, Funiculina seems to me to occupy an especially primitive place below all known 

 sea-pens, and, at all events, a sufficiently peculiar place for it to form a separate family in which no 

 other genus can be included for the present, Halipteris, which has been placed as its nearest all)', 

 since Kolliker in his monograph had made this arrangement, is in reality far removed from it; the 

 resemblances found are common to most long and slender sea-pens. In Halipteris, there is as strong a 

 contrast between zooids and polyps as in any other sea-pen ; in the calyx of its polyps the abaxial side 

 is far more developed than the axial one where teeth are quite wanting in the calyx. In reality, I 

 think that the original reference of the typical species H. christii to Virgularia has more nearly 

 approached the correct thing; it is, as stated above, a Pavonarid; as in Pavonaria the calyx of the 

 polyp is provided with two abaxial teeth; the only essential difference is that the polyps do not 

 coalesce to form real wings. 



With regard to the genera with polyps without calyx, Sclcroptilum K611. shows the 

 simplest form of colony; as it shows no immediate relation to the other known genera it must, I 

 presume, form a separate family Scleroptilidiz 1 ). 



The genus Anthoptilum must still form the type of a family Anthoptilida; but in this family 



') The genus was established by Kolliker (Chall. Rep. Vol. I, p. 30, PI. VII, fig. 29) for the species S. grandjfloritm 

 and durissinum, both from considerable depths in the Pacific off Japan; Verrill has later found another species 5. gracile, 

 of a length up to I foot, in the depths of the Atlantic to the east of North America (Cape Hatteras) (Rep. Coinm. Fish and 

 Fisheries for 1883 (1885) p. 510 [8], PL III, fig. 6, and Am. Journ. Sc. Vol.28, 1884, p. 219); the description in the latter place 

 speaks of ventral zooids, and such zooids, according to Kolliker, ought to be wanting. 



