122 Tr-ansactions of the Society. 



M. Camille Viguier * has described and given beautiful tigm-es 

 of a type which he calls Fascicularia, and has proposed to include 

 Paralcyonmm along with it in a special family or sub-family, 

 Fascicularina?. But it is not evident that Fascicularia is really 

 related to Faralci/miium : it consists of groups united by stolons ; 

 the cavities of the polyps are continued, quite distinct from one 

 another, down the " basilar column ;" there is no common region 

 except the base; the lai'ge polyps expand from the top of the 

 basilar column, but there is no liranched or lobed polyparium; in 

 fact, as the author says, there is no polyparium properly so-called. 

 He makes the same remark, it is true, in regard to Paralci/oni.i'm, 

 which, however, he had not seen. What at once marks Faralci/- 

 onium as distant from Fascicularia, is the presence of a branched 

 polypaiium rising from the top of a iirmer cylindrical stalk, into 

 which it can be retracted. Viguier speaks of the " incontestable 

 resemblance " between his Fascicularia and the Paralcyonium of 

 Milne-Edwards, but we are unable to share tliis view. The descrip- 

 tion of Fascicularia suggests to us relationship with Symj30(Hiivi 

 rather than with Paralcyonium. 



A recent careful studyf of abundant material of Fascicularia, 

 and Faralcyonium by Sophie Motz-Kossowska and Louis Fagc 

 corroborates Viguier's view. In their interesting paper the authors 

 point out that the two types agree (1) in having a stolon con- 

 necting the colonies (but this is often almost suppressed in 

 Paralcyonium); (2) in having a rigid basal portion into which the 

 polyps can be retracted (but in Fascicularia this is composed of 

 the unfused gastric cavities of the polyps, whereas in Paralcy- 

 onium there has been much coalescence, and therefore far fewer 

 longitudinal canals than polyps ; moreover, Paralcyonium has a 

 branching polyparium with secondary polyps arising from primary 

 polyps) ; (3) in having similar spicules — small, flat, opaque 

 elliptical forms in a sub-tentacular collar and larger spindles in 

 the basal portion (but the spindles are very much larger in 

 Paralcyonium). The authors point out that Paralcyonium passes 

 through a Fascicularia stage, and in spite of the great difference in 

 the Ijasilar portion and in the relations of the polyps to one another, 

 they unite them in the family rascicidarida^, defined as follows : 

 " Colonies very poor in ccenenchyma, composed of several groups 

 of polyps united by a stolon ; polyps united at the base in a rigid 

 column within which they can be completely retracted." It is 

 suggested that the family is connected by Fascicularia with the 

 Clavularidse, that there are some affinities with Nidalia and 



* Etudes sur les auimaux inferieurs de la Baie d' Alger. III. Un uouveau type 

 d'Anthozoaiie {Fascicularia cdwardsi). Arch. Zool. Esper. ser. 2, vi. (1888) 

 pp. 351-73 (2 pis.). See also H. de Lacaze-Duthiers ; Coraniaires du Golie du 

 Liou. Alcyonaires. Arch. Zool. Exper. ser. 3, viii. (1900) pp. 353-462 (4 pis.). 



t Contribution a I'etude de la famille des Pascicularid^s. Arch. Zool. Expe ., 

 vii. (I'JOT) pp. 423-43 (10 figs.). 



