Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 125 



denizens of our seas, without going out of hearing of their dear 

 Bow Bell. 



What advantages to science our metropolitan zoologists have 

 reaped from their opportunities, I leave them to record ; but I 

 propose to lay before your readers, from time to time, some notes 

 that I have made while engaged in forming the collection. At 

 the time of my writing these lines, about 3000 specimens of 

 linng marine animals and plants have passed through my hands, 

 and have been successively transmitted to London for deposition 

 in the Zoological Society's aquaria. Some of these have appeared 

 to me as yet undescribed, others seem to be little knowTi, except 

 in a dried and withered state ; and the great majority even of 

 such as are considered well known, present so much of novelty 

 and interest in their habits, that I often regret that the almost 

 absolute absorption of my time in collecting and transmitting 

 the specimens, forbids my jotting down a great deal of what I 

 observe, while fresh in memory. 



But without further preface I proceed to describe some new or 

 rare species of Invertebrata. 



Class ECHINODERMATA. 



Fam. SiPUXcuLiD^. 



Sipunculus punctatissimus (mihi). The Dotted Sipunculus. 



Body li inch long, ^ in. thick; trunk | in. long, ^^^ in. thick. 

 The body is cylindrical, abruptly pointed, of a satiny gloss, seenl 

 under the lens to be covered with close-set, slight, annular 

 wrinkles. The trunk is nearly cylindrical, but slightly attenuated 

 about the middle ; it is wrinkled transversely like the body, and 

 has in addition several irregular longitudinal furrows ; the ex- 

 truded tip is surrounded by about eight circles of minute black 

 bristle-points, and terminated by a single row of short, slender 

 filiform white tentacles, which are evertile. The general colour 

 of the whole animal is light umber-brown, which, under a pow- 

 erful lens, is resolved into a freckling of pale dots excessively 

 minute, close-set, and numerous, on a ground of brown. I ob- 

 tained it between tide-marks at Weymouth, July 1st, 1853. 



Class ZOOPHYTA. 



Fam. CoRYNiDiE? 



Genus Spadix (mihi). Root adhering, creeping for a short 

 distance. Stem free, verj' flexible, girt near its base by a mul- 

 titude of arborescent appendages, which bear berry-like ova. 

 Upper part of stem fleshy, covered with papillae. The name was 



