272 PEOF. ALLITAW Olf NEW GENEItA 



Gonosome not known. 



Locality. Natal, Mr. BusVs collection. 



The opposite regularly disposed pinnate ramuli of this species 

 give it an elegantly plumose habit, while one of its most striking fea- 

 tures will be found in the curious tendril-like prolongations of the 

 pinnae. The Hydroid grows in crowded groups ; and the tendril- 

 like processes, after extending themselves for some distance, with 

 a more or less tortuous course, finally adhere by their distal ex- 

 tremities to some part of the same or of neighbouring hydro- 

 phytons, so that the whole group becomes tied together into a 

 complicated mass. The attachment of these processes is by their 

 extreme ends, which are applied in a somewhat sucker-like fashion 

 to the surface to which they adhere. 



Selaginopsis, gen. nov. 



Trophosome. Hydrophyton consisting of a single axile tube, to 

 which the hydrothecse are adnate, and on which they are disposed 

 in several longitudinal rows. 



Gonosome. Not known. 



The genus Selaginopsis is allied to Grammaria, Stimpson, from 

 which it difiers chiefly in consisting throughout of a single axile 

 tube, to whose sides the comparatively short hydrothecae are 

 adnate, while in Grammaria the elongated hydrothecse are con- 

 tinued into tubes which are combined into a fascicled stem. 

 From Cryptolaria, Busk, it further differs in the polystichous 

 disposition of its hydrothecae, these being distichous in Crypto- 

 laria. 



With Pericladium, another Japanese genus, it has also strong 

 affinities. JFrom this, however, it differs in the disposition of its 

 hydrothecae in longitudinal series as well as in its totally different 

 type of ramification. 



Were we acquainted with its gonosome we should probably 

 find other points either of alliance or divergence of which we are 

 at present ignorant. 



Selaginopsis fusca. Plate XII. fig. 1, and Plate XIX. figs. 1, 2. 



Trophosome. Hydrophyton attaining a height of 4 (or more) 

 inches, irregularly branched, with joints at irregular intervals; 

 branches contracted at their origin. Hydrothecae with margin 

 of orifice slightly waved, disposed in four rows along the stem 

 and branches ; the whole very dark brown and opaque. 



