Specimens of Ceplialodiscus densus. 435 



partly perished, so that tlie tubes readily separate from one 

 auotlier. Photographs of the two best pieces of the grey 

 material are re[)roduced in PL XII. The hirgest piece 

 (B) is viewed from the internal or torn surface, i. e., the 

 surface by whicli it was connected with the rest of the 

 colony ; on the external or natural surface the tubes are 

 shorter. The U]>per photograph (A) is a top view of a 

 smaller piece, having shorter tubes. 



The material in this, the larger bottle, was in the tirst 

 instance sent from Edinburgh, where the distribution of the 

 'Challenger' material took place, to Mr. S. O. Ridley, to 

 whom was entrusted the writing of the report upon the 

 Monaxonid sponges of the expedition. The original 'Chal- 

 lenger' label, slill on the bottle, reads: — '^ S|)onge ; 17 Jan. 

 1874 ; Royal Sound, Kei'guelen Island, 25 fnis." Inside 

 the bottle is a parchment label giving the same particulars, 

 although the "Jan." of the date looks hke ^' jun./' and 

 might be taken to stand for "June"; even in the external 

 label the month of the date looks hke "Jane." The ' Chal- 

 lenger/ however, was not at Kerguelen Island in June, but 

 in January. There is, further, a small parchment label 

 bearing the words " Chall. 159, Royal Sound, Kerguelen, 

 25 fatlis." But Station 159 is between Termination Land 

 and Melbourne, with date March 10th, 1874, and depth 

 2150 fath. — so that there is evidently here a clerical error, 

 the 159 being a mistake for 149, which is the Kerguelen 

 Island Station. According to the " Summary of Results," 

 part 1, p. 460, the 'Challenger'' was off Kerguelen Island 

 from January 9th to January 29th, 1874, and " a great many 

 soundings, dredgings, and trawlings were taken ... in depths 

 vjirying between 20 and 150 fathoms." 



This bottle of material was sent back by Mr. Ridley on 

 June 4th, 1883, marked ''Hydroid?." When the part of 

 the ' Challenger ' Collection known as the "Supplementary 

 Collection" was despatched from Edinburgh to the British 

 Museum (Nat. Hist.) in 1890, the material referred to was 

 registered as 90. 4. 11. 13 — i. e., the thirteenth specimen 

 registered on April 11th, 1890. It was still regarded as a 

 kind of Hydrozoan allied to Spoiigicola Jistularis, and re- 

 mained among the Hydrozoa until it was recognized by 

 Mr. R. Kirkpatrick in February 1919 as a form of Cephalo- 

 discus. JMr. Kirkpatrick reported his discovery to the 

 Director of the Museum, Sir Sidney Harmer, who, in July 

 1921, was good enough to hand the bottle over to me for a 

 description of the contents. 



A few days afterwards, by a strange coincidence. Sir Sidney 

 Harmer submitted to me the second bottle, which had just 



28* 



