512 DR, HUBRECHT ON A NEW PENNATULID. [May 19, 



3. On a new Pennatulid from the Japanese Sea. By Dr. 

 A. A. W. HuBRECHT, C.M.Z.S., Professor of Zoology 

 at the University of Utrecht. 



[Eeceiyed April 30, 1885.] 



(Plates XXX. & XXXI.) 



In the year 1 874, Captain St. John, then in the Japanese sea, at 

 34° I r N., 136° 33' E., captured at a depth of 71 fathoms two speci- 

 mens of Pennatulids (see Plate XXX. figs. 1-3). They passed 

 into the possession of Professor W. C. Macintosh of St. Andrews, 

 whose numerous duties and arduous researches in another field of 

 Zoology (Report on the Annelids of the ' Challenger,' &c.) allowed 

 him no leisure to make anything more than a superficial examination 

 of the animals in question. When, in 1884, I had the pleasure of 

 making a short stay at St. Andrews for the purpose of utilizing the 

 numerous facilities offered by the Zoological Station which at the 

 initiative of this distinguished biologist, has arisen at that interesting 

 point of the Scottish coast he kindly showed me over his extremely 

 rich collection of marine invertebrates, mostly in spirit and in 

 excellent state of preservation. We came upon the bottle containing 

 the Japanese specimens, and as I noticed certain distant points of 

 resemblance with Solenogastres, in which I was at the moment 

 particularly interested (presence of calcareous spicules in the 

 integument, club-shaped form, faint longitudinal groove on the con- 

 cave side, &c.). Prof. Macintosh most courteously put both the 

 specimens at my disposal for a more detailed anatomical examination. 



I was very glad to accept the proposal. This paper contains the 

 result of my investigations, for which, as far as the internal structure 

 is concerned, only one of the specimens (fig. 1) was sacrificed, the other 

 one (figs. 2 & 3) having been returned to the owner intact. Moreover 

 the series of sections which were made through the first specimen 

 were all duly preserved, and are now at St. Andrews. 



An examination of the two specimens with low power very soon 

 dispelled the possibility of any relationship to the Solenogastres, and 

 showed the organism to be a colony, from which the shrivelled bodies 

 of the polyps with their fringe of long tentacles might be seen to 

 emerge. It was in the thickened portion, the rhachis (r), that this was 

 noticed ; the stem («) is devoid of polyps and terminates in a rounded 

 knob, which shows a faint swelling just before the lower extremity. 

 Subterminally there was on the concave side a very short oblong- 

 furrow, at the bottom of which no opening whatever could be 

 detected. 



The colour of both specimens is of the light brownish-red which 

 is reproduced in the figures ; and superficial examination revealed the 

 existence not only in the stem, but along the whole rhachis, of deli- 

 cate calcareous spicules, so densely accumulated as to make the 



