24 REPORT ON THE PENNATULIDA. 



1873.— Sir C. Wyville Thomson : " Depths of the Sea," pp. 149 and 

 178, describes dredginjj FunicuUna in about 100 fathoms of water 

 in Eaasay Sound, along the east coast of the Isle of Skye. The 

 specimens from this new locality were obtained on September 

 13th, 1869, during the third cruise of H.M.S. " Porcupine." Their 

 capture is described thus : " The Pavonaricc {FunicuUna:) were 

 resplendent with a pale lilac phosphorescence like the flame of 

 cyanogen gas; not scintillating like the gi-een light of Ophiacantlta, 

 but almost constant ; sonaetimss flashing out at one point more 

 brightly, and then dying gradually into comparative dimness, but 

 always sufficiently bright to make every portion of a stem caught 

 in the tangles or sticking to the ropes distinctly visible. From 

 the number of specimens of Favonaria (FunicuUna ) brought up 

 at one haul we had evidently passed over a forest of them. The 

 stems were a metre (about B9ins.) long, fringed with hundreds of 

 polypes." 



We learn from Professor Herdman that during the third cruise 

 of the '• 'Povcuinne" FunicuUna was dredged at one other locality 

 besides the one just mentioned. Among the " Porcupine " stores 

 is a bottle containing one specimen of Funi' iiUna, eight inches 

 long, and with the following label : " Porcupine, Xo. 54, 19-8-69. 

 363 fathoms. Bottom, stony." From the map illustrating the 

 third cruise of the " Porcupine,"* and from the tables giving the 

 positions, etc., of the several dredging stations! we find that 

 station .54, this new locality for FunicuUna, is in latitude 59° 56 ' N., 

 and longitude 6'' 27 W., about midway between the island of Lewis 

 in the Hebrides, and Suderoe the southernmost of the Faroe Islands, 

 and in very nearly the same latitude as Bergen. This locality is of 

 considerable interest for many reasons : it is the most northerly 

 British locality recorded ; the depth (363 fathoms) is the greatest 

 from which living specimens have ever been obtained ; the bottom 

 temperature was very low, 31"o° F. ; and the bottom stony 

 instead of as in other localities mud. An additional point of 

 interest lies in the fact that while all other recorded localities are 

 either in land-locked channels, or else close to the mainland, this 

 is in the open ocean. 



1880.— Kolliker : " Report on the Pennatulida dredged by H.M.S. 

 ' Challenger ' : Zoology of ' Challenger ' Expedition." Part II., p. 34. 

 Gives a new classification of the Pennatulida, in which the 

 zoological position and affinities of FunicuUna are determined. 

 No specimens of FunicuUna were obtained by the "Challenger " 

 during the whole of her three years' cruise ; but two new allied 

 genera were discovered, of which one genus, StaclujptiUim. is 

 represented by a single specimen from the west coast of New 

 Guinea ; while of the other genus, AnthoptiUnn, three species were 

 discovered, two in the South Atlantic Ocean, one of them near 

 Buenos Ayres, and the other near the oceanic Islands of Tristan 

 d'Acunha, and the third in the North Atlantic, near Halifax, 

 in Nova Scotia. 



Geographical Distributiox. 

 FunicuUna has a very limited distribution indeed ; the only locali- 

 ties recoi'ded hitherto being the following : — 



A. —Mediterranean : 



1. Naples, where it was first discovered in 1757. 



Thomson : " Depths ot the Sea," Plate IV., p. 106. + Ibid., p. 143. 



I 



