THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTOEY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 

 No. 35. NOVEMBER 1880. 



XLI. — On the Minute Structure of the Recent Heteropora 

 neozelanica, Bush, and on the Relations of the Genus Hete- 

 ropora to Monticulipora. By H. Alleyne Nicholson, 

 M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E. 



Part I. 



The genus Heteropora, De Blainville *, has long been known 

 to paleontologists as comprising a number of Jurassic, Creta- 

 ceous, and Tertiary fossils which have been generally, and 

 are now universally, referred to the Polyzoa. Though the 

 fossil species are abundant in certain deposits and are widely 

 distributed, it is only quite lately that we have become 

 acquainted with any recent forms of the genus. The first 

 account of these was given by Mr. A. W. Waters (Journ. 

 Roy. Micr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 390, pi. xv. 1879), who describes 

 and figures a Japanese species under the name of H. pelli- 

 culata, sp. nov., and an Australian species under the name of 

 H. cervicornis, d'Orb., sp. Very shortly after the publication 

 of the paper just alluded to, Professor Busk described (from 

 specimens which I had previously forwarded to him) another 

 recent type of Heteropora from the seas round New Zealand, 

 giving to it the name of II. neozelanica f (Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 vol. xiv. p. 724, pi. xv. 1879). We have therefore now a 



* Man. d'Act. p. 417 (1834). 



t Mr. Waters informs me, in a letter, that, having examined specimens 

 which I had sent him, he is of opinion that H. iwoze/anica, Busk, is iden- 

 tical with his H. pelliculata, the latter having the priority. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. vi. 24 



