1888.] 



MR. G. H. FOWLER ON A NEW PENNATULA. 



139 



the remaining six, and supply the young polyp with nutritive fluid 

 from below ; this possible function of the siphonoglyphe is therefore 

 forestalled. Further observations on similar conditions — gemmation, 

 fission, reproduction of lost parts, &c. — are much to be desired. 



The spicules in the polyps, leaves, and rachis, are long and fusi- 

 form, and apparently triradiate in section (fig. ia); thev are very 

 long, measuring from '8 to 1".5 millim. Those which colour the 

 bulbous swelling on the stalk (fig. 3 b) are dumbbell-shaped, and 

 apparently surmounted by a str(,ng ridge; tliey measure about 

 •14X'01 millim., and are less strongly tinted than those of the 

 feather. The axis, which is less hard than is generally the case, is 

 triangular in section and bent in a hook below. 



Of Pemmtulce previously described, the present species comes 



Fig. 3. 

 b a b 



a. Fusiform spicule, distributed over the feather and racbis, x 47 ; b. Durab- 

 bell-shajoed spicules from the bulbous swelling of the stalk, X 210. 



nearest to P. 7iaresii (Kolliker, ' Chall.' Rep. Zool. vol. i. p. 2, pi. i. 

 figs. 1, 2). From this, however, it differs in the number of tlie 

 rudimentary leaves, the absence of wart-like protuberances on the 

 concave border of the leaf, the freedom of the mid-dorsal line of the 

 rachis, as also in several other points ; while the row of immature 

 zooids is characteristic of both forms. 



At two points easily recognizable on the left-hand side of Plate VI., 

 parts of two leaves have apparently been nibbled away, producing a 

 marked hypertrophy of the remaining polyps. 

 The dimensions are given in tabular form : — 



millim. 



Total length (incomplete) 1/8 



Length of rachis 118 



Diameter of rachis 9 



Breadth of feather 70 



Length of stalk 60 



Diameter of stalk 4 



