THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 

 No. 96. DECEMBER 1885. 



XXXVIII.— TAe Victorella pavida of Saville Kent. 

 By E. C. BOUSFIELD, L.R.C.P., Lond. 



[Plate XII. fig3. 1-3.] 



Having recently been so fortunate as to meet with a consi- 

 derable supply of this beautiful and interesting polyzoon, I 

 propose in the following notes to give a description of it, 

 with special reference to the observations of the naturalist who 

 first found it and described it at some length in the ' Quar- 

 terly Journal of Microscopical Science ' (N. S. vol. x. p. 34, 

 with pi. iv.). As my own observations differ in one or two 

 essential points from Mr. Kent's, I append the systematic 

 description which he formulated : — 



" Family Homodiaetidse. 



" Victorella pavida, 



" Polypidom minute, confervoid, adherent or semierect, 

 irregularly branched. Tentacles eight in number ; no gizzard. 

 Inhabiting brackish water. Parasitic on the polypary of 

 Cordylo^hora lacustris.^' 



Mr. Hincks, in liis ' Marine Polyzoa,' describes the Victo- 

 rella, but with important differences from the statements of 

 Mr. Kent, and, in fact, by combining the two accounts it is 

 possible to arrive at conclusions somewhat approaching the 

 truth. Mr. Hincks, however, had not, I believe, the opportunity 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xvi. 28 



