ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 71 



The animal is goblet-shaped, and the sphseridia are borne on the 

 inside of the cnp only, where they are especially numerous round the 

 oral cone. The general structure agrees with that of an ordinary 

 Actinian, the abnormal shape being produced merely by a considerable 

 upward growth at the point where the body-wall passes into the oral 

 disc. The mesogloea is thick. No arrangement into cycles could be 

 detected in the sphseridia. The stomodseum is marked internally by a 

 series of tongue-like ridges produced by the inward growth of the 

 mesogloea and ectoderm ; the most perfect specimen had twenty-three 

 pairs of mesenteries, of which twelve were complete. As in some other 

 genera, new mesenteries take their origin just under the oral disc, and 

 not in the angle between the body-wall and pedal disc. The muscle of 

 the body-wall is endodermal and circular, and is not differentiated into 

 a sphincter at any point. 



The systematic position of this genus is very doubtful ; Dr. Fowler 

 is inclined to regard it as the type of a new family, the Phialactidse, to 

 be placed beside the Liponemidas ; Prof. E. Hertwig thinks it should be 

 associated with the Corallimorphidae. 



Lesueria vitrea.* — Prof. W. C. M'Intosh puts on record the appear- 

 ance of this Ctenophore in British seas. It was found in May 1888 in 

 St. Andrews Bay, where it was present in large numbers till the suc- 

 ceeding September. There is but little to add to the definition given 

 by Milne-Edwards of specimens found at Nice. The contractile filaments 

 are, however, much more distinct than he figures them, while the con- 

 cretions in the ctenocyst are perfectly colourless, and not reddish as in 

 the Mediterranean specimens. In July and August some examples 

 showed a much larger development of the principal lobes at the sides of 

 the mouth than had been observed earlier in the season. As they pro- 

 jected like two large flaps at the sides of the aperture they resembled 

 the EurawpTisea of Gegenbaur. Like the American species described by 

 A. Agassiz, the St. Andrews form was beautifully phosphorescent, the 

 light being intense and almost white. It is readily produced by merely 

 blowing on the water, and glances brightly along the ctenophores. 



New or rare Australian Hydroida.t— Mr. W. M. Bale has notes 

 on the new or rare species of Hydroida in the Australian Museum. 



He finds it necessary to form a new family for Ceratella fusca Gray ; 

 the Ceratellidse may be defined as having the hydranths naked, sessile 

 on processes of a chitinoas reticulated polypary, tentacles all capitate, 

 scattered irregularly over the body ; gonosome unknown ; it is allied to 

 the Corynidse by the structure of the hydranth, and to the Hydractinidse, 

 with which Ceratella was placed by Carter, by the sessile condition of 

 the hydranth and the character of the polypary. 



Among the new forms are Ohelia angulosa, Campanularia (?) spinulosa, 

 Lafoea scandens, which overruns Sertularella divaricata, Halecium gracile, 

 which is slender and monosiphonic, H. parvulum ; Sertularella longitheca 

 is remarkable for the proportionate length of the hydrothecga ; S. varia- 

 hilis comprises a series of forms allied to and partly intermediate between 

 S. indivisa and S. soUdula. Azygoplon is a new genus for Plumiilaria 

 producta, which is mainly characterized by the absence of supracalycine 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ii. (1888) pp. 464-6. 



t Proc. Liim. Soc. N. S. Wale?, Hi. (1888) pp. 745-99 (10 pis.). 



