33 



scales, placed in whorls of three round the branches." But 

 they are characteristically not in whorls in P. reseda, the only 

 known species. The aperture, he says, is closed with three 

 pointed scales, yet he himself points out that P. reseda has 

 eight. " The axis is horny [really very calcareous as well], 

 black [really burnished green-bronze], solid, cylindrical, the 

 base being often covered with a hard calcareous longitudin- 

 ally striated outer coat." 



In his monograph on the Primnoidte — a model of thorough 

 and thoughtful workmanship — ^Dr J. Versluys abstains 

 from a re-description of Prininoa reseda, because it is so 

 readily recognisable. He gives the following diagnosis : — 

 "The polyps may be closely apposed to the twigs, as in 

 Caligorgia, by their almost naked adaxial surface ; ouly two 

 abaxial rows of sclerites are well developed. At the upper 

 margin of the calyx there are eight sclerite?, each of which 

 bears an opercular scale, and of these, as of the sclerites which 

 bear them, the four adaxials are distinctly smaller than the 

 four abaxials." " The branching is irregularly dichotomous, 

 and relatively sparse. The colony spreads out, predomi- 

 nantly but not exclusively in one plane. The polyps are 

 not in verticils, but are disposed irregularly and somewhat 

 densely ; they are not in spirals." 



Geographical Distribution.- — Versluys sums up the distri- 

 bution of Primnoa reseda as : North Atlantic, coasts of 

 Scotland, Shetland Islands, Norway, White Sea, and on the 

 American coast at St George's Bank, Bay of Fundy. Stokes 

 says off Norway ; and the British Museum specimen, pre- 

 sented by Dr Carruthers, is from the same region. The 

 specimen described and figured by Ellis, presented to him by 

 Solander, came from Archangel. Gray notes North Sea ; 

 Setubal (Prof E. P. Wright) ; England (Johnson). In his 

 British Animals Fleming notes, " This species, which is 

 common on the Norwegian coast, has been found, according 

 to Professor Jameson {Wernerian Memoirs, vol. i. p. 560), 

 at Zetland and Aberdeenshire." We have now to add, 

 Faeroe Channel. 



Embryos. — As I have mentioned, my study of Priinnoa 

 reseda has been rewarded by the discovery that this species 



