66 MR JAMES RITCHIE 



Halecium halecinum, Linn., 1758. 



A thick clump of stout fascicled stems and branches from the entrance to Saldanha 

 Bay. The stems and branches are truncated at an almost uniform height, are of a dark 

 brown colour, and bear small, hydrotheca-bearing shoots of a pale brown, and evidently 

 of younger age. The general appearance suggests that some agency having damaged 

 the old-established branches, the colonies have made an effort to. survive by sending out 

 many small, much-branched shoots from the older and unharmed portions of the stem. 



The architecture is similar to that described by HINKS. The hydrothecse are 

 alternate, one towards the distal end of each internode. They are generally sessile, as 

 described and figured by BILLARD (1904, p. 161) for young branches, and frequently 

 they contain the base of a tier of one or two secondary cups. Rarely in place of such a 

 tier there arises a blind regenerative stolon, the true branches arising just below the 

 hydrothecse. Thus i't comes about that a tier of hydrothecse frequently appears in the 

 angle between a branch and its offshoot. Small refringent points are present round the 

 edge of the hydro theca as in the other species of the genus (vide p. 525). 



Gonosome. The gonangia, of which only male are present, occur in densely packed 

 rows. They agree with HINKS'S description and figure, being slenderly ovate and 

 narrowing proximally into a short stalk with about two rings. 



Locality, etc. Entrance to Saldanha Bay, Cape Colony, in 25 fathoms Date, 

 21st May 1904. 



Halecium robustum, Allman, 1888. 



A fragment of a strongly fascicled, upright, much - branched colony 5 cm. in 

 height. The branches lie roughly in one plane and are often bent at sharp angles, the 

 older rising irregularly from the stem, while the younger are approximately alternate, 

 and arise from the side of the proximal segment of the hydrotheca. The internodes, 

 which are long, but whose length varies from 0'6 to 1'5 mm., are separated by 

 slanting nodes and bear at their distal ends alternate hydrothecse 0'2 mm. in 

 diameter from margin to margin, adnate at one side to the internode, with an insignifi- 

 cant, non-everted limbus, and rarely with a tier of one or two secondary hydrothecae. 

 The proximal ends of the internodes are marked by slight annulations. Around the 

 inside of the limbus are situated small, light-refracting prominences, to which, as in the 

 other members of the genus, are attached strands keeping in place a fleshy disc at the 

 base of the hydranth which cuts off the perisarcal cavity from the exterior. The 

 hydranths are large and have a great number of tentacles. 



Gonosome. Not present. 



Localities, etc. (a) Station 411, off Coat's Land. Lat., 74 1' S; long., 22 0' W. 

 Depth, 161 fathoms. Surface temperature, 28'9. Date, 12th March 1904. 

 (b) St Helena. 



The specimens differ from that figured by ALLMAN (1888) in that the branches 



(ROY. 8OC. EDIN. TRANS., VOL. XLV., 524.) 



