ZOOLOGY OF THE BERMUDAS. 115 



ployed, and I think is of sufficient importance to warrant the 

 formation of a new species. It was a question whether a new 

 genus should be instituted, as Verrill 1 has done in the case of 

 Lophactis ornata, but there is such close agreement with the 

 Bahaman O.flosculifera as regards the internal structure, the 

 number of perfect mesenteries, and the distribution upon the 

 mesenteries of the reproductive organs, that such a proceeding 

 was considered unnecessary. It seems probable that the genus 

 Lophactis should be fused with Oulactis. 



DIPLACTIS. Gen. nov. 



I propose this generic name for two species, one of which is 

 described below, which do not seem to be referable to any of 

 the genera now recognized. The genus may be briefly defined 

 as follows: Phyllactidse in which the fronds are represented 

 by a single cycle of short digitiform tentacles and in which all 

 the mesenteries except those of the first cycle are gonophoric. 

 The term Diplactis has been chosen as indicating the tentacular 

 appearance of the fronds, from which it seems as if there 

 were two series of tentacles, an inner and an outer (diplous, 

 double, and aklis, a ray). 



In the Supplementary Report on the Actiniaria collected by 

 the " Challenger," R. Hertwig decribes a form whose locality 

 is unknown, which lie refers to Gosse's genus HormatJiia. It is 

 very similar to the form about to be described from the Ber- 

 mudas, and there can be no doubt that though specifically 

 distinct the two must be referred to the same genus. Gosse's 

 Hormathia? was described from a single specimen brought up 

 on a deep-sea fishing line, and attached to the shell of a living 

 Fusus. It was characterized by possessing slightly below the 

 margin about ten spherical protrusions. I do not think it is 

 possible to associate in the same genus with this either the 

 Bermuda Diplactis or Hertwig's Hormathia. In the first place 

 in both these forms the bodies near the margin are digitiform 

 and not spherical ; and secondly, these bodies are situated not 



1 Verrill, Trans. Conn. Aca<l. Vol. i, 1808. 



2 P. H. Gosse. " Aclinologia Britannica." London. 1860. 



