Mr. H. J. Carter on new Species o/'Hydractiniid£e. 13 



Ghitina ericopsis^ n. gen. et sp. 



Zoophyte erect, bushy, fragili-flexible, fawn-coloured. 

 Trunk long, hard, irregularly round, composed of many stems 

 united clathrately and obliquely into a cord-like bundle, which 

 divides and subdivides irregularly into branches, that again 

 unite with each in substance (anastomose) when in contact, 

 and finally form a straggling bushy head. Hydrotheca long, 

 clatlirate, tubular, terminating the ends of the branchlets or 

 prolonged from some of the proliferous tubercles which beset 

 the surface of the trunk and lar2:er stems. Minute structure : 

 composed of clatlirate chitinous fibre throughout, whose mesh- 

 work is subrectangular and massive in the stems, where there 

 is no difi'erence between the centre and circumference, with the 

 exception that the fibre is stouter in the former or oldest part ; 

 hydrotheca composed of several longitudinal fibres or ridges lat- 

 tice-worked together transversely into a tubular form, somewhat 

 contracted at the extremity, in the centre of which is an aper- 

 ture of the meshwork a little larger than the rest. Height 

 of specimens about 14 inches, trunk about 1 inch in diameter ; 

 hydrotheca averaging l-3rd of an inch long by l-60th of an 

 inch in its broadest part, and the aperture l-90th of an inch in 

 diameter. 



Hob. Marine ; erect. 

 Loc. New Zealand. 



Ohs. There are several specimens of this beautiful polypidom 

 in the British Museum ; one of which (bearing the no. 57. 1. 2. 

 36) was presented by Dr. Sinclair, and the rest by Sir G. 

 Grey ; all from New Zealand. From their worn state they 

 appear to have been long subjected to the friction of the waves 

 and beach before they were picked up for preservation. Hardly 

 any of the hydrothecas on them are perfect ; and it is only by 

 looking carefully over the specimens that one can be found 

 answering the description above given ; and then it requires to 

 be viewed with an inch compound power "end on" (as it is 

 termed) to see the aperture at the extremity ; the least incli- 

 nation to one side will bring the surrounding network into 

 focus, and thus defeat the object of the observer. In some the 

 dried remains of the polype are still present, which mark the 

 position of the tubular cavity. Conical ovoid thread-cells may 

 be seen in the clathrate structure of the polypidom, which 

 hang about the fibre in a dried fleshy sulDstance that appears also 

 to be the remains of the coenosarc ; and on some of the larger 

 stems there are little superficial holes, which appear to be the 

 remains of canals through which the coenosarc was continued 

 into the cavities of the hydrotheca^ respectively, now worn 

 off. The specimen differs so markedly from all the rest in its 



