a General History of the Marine Polyzoa. 11 



Mediterranean; Madeira, 30 fms. {J. Y.J.)) Floridan sea; 

 Arctic sea. 



Family EscharicUe (part), Smitt. 



Lepralia (part), Johnston. 



Lepralia Pallaswna, Moll. (PI. X. fig. 3.) 



The ooecia of this handsome and common species have not 

 hitherto been noticed. It is extremely abundant on our south- 

 western coasts ; but amongst the multitude of specimens exa- 

 mined no trace of an ovicell has occurred to me. No writer 

 on the Polyzoa, so far as I am aware, has described them; 

 but they are present on a specimen from Madeira. They are 

 very shallow, almost semilunate in form, and closely united to 

 the cell above. 



Lepralia Kirckenpaueri, Heller. 

 (PL IX. figs. 7, 7 a.) 



Var. teres. — Zooecia more or less lozenge-shaped, quincun- 

 cial, well defined, surface smooth ; orifice arched above, deci- 

 dedly constricted a little above the lower margin (which is 

 straight) by two prominent denticles, much taller than broad ; 

 peristome slightly raised and somewhat thickened ; a small 

 oval or roundish avicularium (or vibraculum) on each side, a 

 little below the orifice (generally), placed on a slight emi- 

 nence. cerium rounded, smooth, with a rib round the front 

 of it. 



Loc. Funchal Bay, 30 fms. {J. Y.J.). 



It seems better to rank this form as a variety of Heller's 

 species, though there are several points of difference between 

 the two. In the Madeiran specimens the zocecium is per- 

 fectly smooth, whereas in L. Kirchenpaueri from the Adriatic 

 the surface is described as " wrinkled and punctured," and 

 Manzoni has figured it from Mediterranean examples with the: 

 punctures disposed in distinct radiating furrows. This very 

 marked sculpture certainly contrasts strongly with the sim- 

 plicity of the Madeiran form ; but the superficial characters of 

 the cell-wall are liable to wide variations. A more important 

 difference perhaps is found in the ocecium, which is described 

 by Heller as only slightly elevated and traversed by radiating 

 ribs ; in the Madeiran species it is by no means depressed and 

 has a smooth surface, the front of which is enclosed by a pro- 

 minent ridge. In the latter, too, the oral extremity of the 

 cell is much less decidedly narrowed than it is represented by 

 Heller and (more especially) by Manzoni. 



