6 Mr. J. J. Quelcli on some 



Family PlumulariidaB. 



Several of the genera of this family are in great need of 

 revision. The characters by means of which Plumularia, for 

 instance, is separated from Antennularia are now become 

 extremely vague, since the verticillate arrangement of the 

 ramuli in the latter has had to be abandoned as a generic 

 character. In Antennularia the ramuli may be few or many, 

 verticillate or scattered, while in the young colonies and on 

 the basal parts of more advanced ones the ramuli are placed 

 singly and alternately, becoming afterwards placed in pairs, 

 a condition that obtains in the young forms of our common 

 Antennularia antennina. Plumularia does not thus seem to 

 have any constant natural character by which to separate it 

 from Antennularia. The genera Antennopsis and Hippu- 

 rella seem also inseparable from Plumularia and Ante7inu- 

 laria. In speaking of Hippurella^ I use the name as defined 

 by Prof. Allman in his " Report on the Hydroids of the 

 Gulf-stream," where it is stated that the "ultimate ramuli 

 are alternate and pinnate towards the proximal ends of the 

 branches, but towards the distal ends surrounding the branches 

 on all sides, and here either scattered or regularly verticillate ; 

 each composed of alternate long and short internodes with 

 intervening groups of very short ring-like internodes, each of 

 the long internodes carrying a hydrotheca." 



Mr. J. W. Fewkes states (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Cam- 

 bridge, U.S.A. vol. viii. p. 134) that in a form which he 

 has identified as Hippurella annulata, Allman, these verticil- 

 late branches are but verticillate ribs, destitute of hydrothecee, 

 and that they bear simply a row of nematophores, being thus 

 a special form of the phylactocarp in which the gonophores 

 are borne between successive verticils of these ribs. Mr. 

 Fewkes has not stated, so far as I am aware, that this is a 

 redescription based on a reexamination of Allman's type 

 specimen, so that, until such information be forthcoming, in 

 the face of the explicit statement of Prof. Allman quoted 

 above from his description, it seems unavoidable to conclude 

 that Mr. Fewkes has described some form which, though 

 closely agreeing in many of its features with the Hippurella 

 annulatttj Allman, is quite distinct from it, and is truly refer- 

 able to a new genus. 



Plumularia variabilis^ n. sp. (PI. II. fig. 2.) 



Hydrocaulus attaining a height of more than 60 millims., 

 simple, slender, not fascicled, very indistinctly jointed, and 



