REPORT ON THE PENNATULIDA. 



impossible to obtain a direct view in the required position, have been 

 compiled from several camera drawings of the individual parts con- 

 cerned. We desire to lay some stress on this point, inasmuch as the 

 figures of FitnicuUna hitherto published* ai*e either very inaccurate, 

 or if cozTCct, as is the case with Kolliker's figures, are taken from 

 specimens with the tentacles completely retracted, and consequently 

 fail to express accurately the appearance of the living animal. 



Pakt I. 

 FUNICULINA QUADEANGULARIS. Paixas. 



Of this rare and interesting species the following specimens were 

 obtained : — 



(7. Four living specimens : one a remarkably large and perfect 

 example, thirty-nine inches in length ; a second, smaller and less 

 mature specimen, twenty inches in length ; and two much smaller ones 

 of ten and eight inches length respectively. 



b. Three complete skeletons or calcareous stems, of twenty-four, 

 twenty, and sixteen inches length respectively; and sixteen fragments of 

 stems, varying in length from four to twenty inches. Some of these 

 are still encrusted with portions of the coenenchym. or fleshy body- 

 substance, and must, therefore, have belonged to specimens only 

 recently dead ; the majority, however, are quite clean and white, and 

 appear, therefore, to have been dead for some time. 



The specimens of Fimiculina were dredged at two spots about a mile 

 apart ; one of these about three njiles N.W. of Oban, and midway 

 between the mainland and Lismore Point, the southern extremity of 

 Lismore Island; the other about half-a-mile S.E. of Lismore Point. t 

 The depth of water in both cases was about twenty-two fathoms, and 

 the bottom mud. 



The living specimens were kept in sea water for one to three days, 

 and then transferred to spirit. In order to study the anatomy of the 

 polypes a few have been removed from different portions of the colony ; 

 and of these sections, either transverse or longitudinal, were made, 

 which, when cleared with a mixture of creosote and turpentine and 

 mounted in balsam, made very satisfactory preparations. The 

 specimens proved to be in better histological condition than was 

 anticipated from the method of preservation, but cannot be relied on 

 to determine doubtful points of microscopic structure. It is highly 

 desirable that in future expeditions more attention should be paid to 

 this very important point. 



The following description, which has been drawn up from the 



* A full list of all the figures of Finuculina hithei-to published is Riven at 

 the end of this paper iu couuectiou with the literature of our subject. 



i Fide " Geueral Report on the Dredging Expedition," by J. F. Goode and 

 W. P. Marshall, in which the first locality is marked Station III., the second, 

 Station -VI. 



