POLYPI. 97 



Fredericilla GERVAIS. 



Sp. Plumatella sultana, Tulularia sultana BLUMENB. Handb. d. nat. Hist. 

 PI. i. fig. 9. 



Alcyonella LAM. Polypary incrusting, irregular, multiform, com- 

 posed of tubules aggregate, cylindrical. 



Sp. Plumatella funyosa nob., Alcyonella stagnorum LAM., Encycl. method. 

 Vers. PI. 472. fig. 3, a, b, c, d, RASPAIL Hist, naturelle de I'Alcyondleflu- 

 viatile, Memoires de la Soc. d'ffist. nat. de Paris, TV. 1828. pp. 75 130, 

 pi. 12 16. To this species probably BAKER'S figure belongs, Employ- 

 ment for the microscope, PI. xn. fig. 13 22 (Bell-flower animal). See 

 JOHNSTON, Hist. Br. Zooph. pp. 391 395. 



RASPAIL is of opinion that this animal is merely a form of Plumatella 

 campanulata altered by age, from which he does not distinguish Plumat. 

 cristata j as soon as the animal breaks the egg, it moves freely about, and 

 should then be described as Cristatella, so that all of them belong to one and 

 the same species at different periods of life. But amongst other objections 

 to the union with Plumatella cristata and campanulata is the number of 

 the tentacles which in Alcyonella is, according to RASPAIL, only forty-four 

 (according to EHRENBERG forty-two), whilst here, if it were an older state 

 of Plumatella campanulata, the number might rather be expected to be 

 greater. Also in Cristatella there are more tentacles. However, it is 

 possible that Cristatella may be .a younger form of another species of 

 Plumatella, and so at some future time to be excluded from the list of 

 genera. 



PALLAS, as it seems, first discovered the Alcyonella in our country in the 

 well-known lake of Rockanje, in the island Voorn, and described it by the 

 name of Tubularia fungosa, Nov. Commentar. Acad. Scient. Petropol. xii. 

 1768. The name Alcyonella should be rejected, for it was borrowed from 

 a supposed resemblance with Alcyonium, which on further investigation 

 was found to be totally unfounded. 



VAN BENEDEN has observed the sexes to be distinct in Alcyonella, male 

 and female individuals occurring in the same Polypary. Bullet: de I' Acad. 

 des Sc. de Brux. Tom. vi. 1841. p. 276. 



Paludicella GERVAIS. 



Sp. Alcyonella articulata EHRENB. Symbol. ? Comp. VAN BENEDEN Bvlh-l. <lc 

 VAcad. des Sc. de Bruxelles vi. 1. 1. 



VOL. I. 



