108 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [402] 



lucidum, which forms large, hemispherical or irregular masses, often six 

 or eight inches, or even more, in diameter, with the surface more or 

 less completely covered by adhering sand. These masses consist of a 

 large number of lobes or basal branches, which come out from a com- 

 mon base as elongated, stolon-like processes, and enlarge upward to the 

 end, which is obtusely rounded, and variable in size, but usually from 

 a quarter to half an inch, while the length may be from one to six 

 inches ; these lobes often coalesce, more or less completely, at the upper 

 surface, which is sometimes naked and smooth, translucent, and of a 

 gelatinous appearance. Each of these lobes contains a central cloacal 

 orifice, around which a colony of minute ascidians, or zooids, are 

 grouped, in a manner analogous to the arrangement in Botryllus, already 

 described, (p. 389,) but in the present case the zooids are very loug and 

 slender j the lower end of each, containing the ovaries, with the heart 

 at its extremity, extends down toward the base of the lobe in which they 

 are contained to various distances, varying according to the age and 

 state of development of each zooid, but the full-grown ones are often 

 nearly an inch long. Each zooid has its own branchial orifice opening at 

 the surface, as in Botryllus, while all the anal tubes discharge the refuse 

 water, faeces, and eggs into the common cloacal ducts. 



The Amarcecium stellatum is another related species, which is nearly 

 as abundant as the last, and likewise grows to a very large size. It 

 forms large, smooth, irregular plates, or crest-like lobes and masses, 

 which are attached by one edge to the stones and gravel. These plates 

 are sometimes one to two feet long, six inches high, and about an inch 

 thick, and, owing to their smooth surface and whitish color, look some- 

 thing like great slices of salt-pork, and in fact it is often called " sea- 

 pork" by the fishermen. Other specimens will be four or five inches 

 high, and only one or two inches broad at the base, and perhaps half 

 an inch in thickness, and the summit often divides into broad, flat, 

 blunt lobes ; various other shapes also occur, some of them very irreg- 

 ular. The larger specimens of this species are generally of a pale-blu- 

 ish or sea-green color by reflected light when first taken from the water, 

 but pale salmon or flesh-color by transmitted light. The zooids are 

 much elongated and arranged in more or less regular circular groups 

 over the whole surface, with a small cloacal orifice in the center of each 

 circle. If kept in water, when they grow sickly the zooids will be 

 forced partially or wholly out of their cavities by the contraction of 

 the tissues around them a peculiarity seen also in other species of this 

 genus. These zooids have the branchial tube prominently six-lobed, 

 and of a bright orange-color, this color also extending over the upper 

 or outer end of the body, between the tubes, and more or less over the 

 branchial sac, which is pale yellow or whitish below. The stomach is 

 longitudinally sulcated, with bright orange-red ribs or glands ; intes- 

 tine bright orange or yellow. 



This species is devoured by sharks, skates, and the tautog, although 



