Prof. AUman on the Hydroida. 68 



followed Agassiz in restorina: to this remarkable hydroid the name 

 of Candelabrum, proposed for it by De Blainville. More mature 

 consideration, however, has induced me to return to the name of 

 Myriothela. De Blainville found that a species of this genus was 

 described by Fabricius under the name of Lucemaria pkry(/ia, 

 and it was plain to him, as it would have been to any zooI(^ist 

 of that day, that Fabricius's hydroid was no Lucemaria ; hence 

 his proposal of a new generic name for it. 



The laws of priority, if rigidly enforced, would certainly justify 

 the suppression of Sars's name in favour of De Blainvilie's ; but 

 it is evident that De Blainville was utterly ignorant of the aiii> 

 mal for which he proposes the generic name of Candelabrum: 

 he asserts that it " certainement n'appartient pas au type des 

 Actinozoaircs," and he concludes his ailosioD to it by aiiirwiug 

 its affinity with Sipuneubu. 



Under these circumstances I cannot but agree with my friend 

 Mr. Alder in feeling that De Blainvillc's name has no claim to 

 take the place of Myriotheia, given to this hydroid by the emi- 

 nent Norwegian zoologist, who was well aeqoainted with it, and 

 to whom we are indebted for the first Intimate soological de- 

 scription of it. 



I have never had the good fortune to meet with a specimen 

 of Myrioihela ; but 1 now learn from Mr. Alder (to whom I am 

 indebted for drawings of the M. arctica, in its yoang and adult 

 states), that the young leave the adeloeodonae gonophorea of 

 this hydroid in a condition which ckwdy reaembles the free 

 state of Tubularia ; and he further suggests the probability of a 

 close affinity between Myriothela and Acaulis. With this view, 

 which would place Myriothela in the family of the Tubmiariddt 

 rather than in that of the Corynida^ I am well inclined to agree. 



II. 

 The Medusa o/Zanclea implexa. Alder. 



Some years ago I described the remarkable mednsa of the 

 Zanclea {Coryne) implexa of Alder, to whose singular peduncu- 

 lated capsules, filled with thread-cells, and set along the whole 

 length of the marginal tentacles, I called special attention *. 



At the end of April last I dredged, off the Forfarshire coast, a 

 colony of the Zanclea^ which, after remaining for about a fort- 

 night in a jar of sea-water, threw off its medusae. On examin- 



• Note* on the Ilydroid Zoophytes, in .\nn. Nat. Hist, for July 1839, 

 p. 54. The hvdroid is there named Coryne Briareus ; I, however, agree 

 with Mr. Alder and Dr. T. S. Wright in referring it to the prerioiuly 

 descril)ed C. implexa of .\liler, a hydroid which I further think must hi 

 now referred to the genus Zanciea of Gegenbaur. (See the SynopM 

 of Tubulariau Ilydroids, p. 357.) 



