FUNICULINA QUAUEANGULAKIB (PALLAS). 275 



light was visible ; while small Funiculina colonies, dredged at the same time 

 and treated in the same way, were phosphorescing freely. 1 did not notice 

 any stinging or numbing effect in handling any of the above-mentioned 

 three species of Pennatulids. 



The colour notes which I made from the living FanicuUna are as 

 follows : — The stem of the colony is pale yellow to ivory-white in tint, quite 

 opaque in the centre and translucent along the edges. In an expanded 

 polype^ measuring about three-quarters of an inch in its free part, the lower 

 half inch or so is translucent and of a greyish colour. The upper^ or distal, 

 quarter inch, where the stomodpeum and the mesenterial filaments show 

 through, varies from an opaque yellow^ to an orange-red — the stomodseum 

 being the yellower part and the mesenterial filaments the redder. The 

 expanded tentacles are of a delicate pinkish white, and the edge of the 

 mouth is marked by a narrow line of opaque yello^v. The blending of these 

 colours, when seen at a little distance, gives the general orange-pink effect 

 which is characteristic of the expanded poljq^e fresh from the sea. 



In a colony a little over three feet in length (say one metre) the largest 

 polypes, when fully expanded, measured about | of an inch in the length 

 of their free part projecting above the stem (see Plate 19. fig. 1). The 

 spiral arrangement of the polypes upon the stem is very evident in the 

 living colony. 



This abundant fresh Funiculina material has enabled us to fill a gap in 

 the knowledge of its minute structure. The Marshalls, in 1882, were 

 unable to find in their Oban specimens any trace of the male gonads, and 

 the male Funiculina has remained undescribed to the present day. Miss H. 

 Muriel Duvall, B.Sc, a post-graduate worker in my laboratory, has been 

 examining with me some of the fresh Funiculina material plunged living 

 into 10 per cent, solution of formalin in sea-water, and we have been 

 fortunate enough, after some searching, to find the missing male gonads. 

 They were found first in a moderate-sized colony of a much paler colour 

 (in formol solution) than the pinker ones in wdiich we were finding the 

 mature female gonads. 



The male gonads of Funiculina are of much the same appearance and 

 structure as those of Pennatula. They are globular masses (spermospheres) 

 of rather smaller size than the mature ova, and consist of an external 

 cellular capsule, a distinct structureless membrane (mesogloea), and a central 

 mass of small nucleated cells which evidently, as the gonads mature, increase 

 greatly in number and become radially fusiform, and are then packed 

 together in masses running inwards from the wall towards a central space. 

 Out of seven colonies we have now examined, three were male and four 

 female, the males being rather the smaller and so distinctly paler in colour 

 that, after seeing the first one, Miss Duvall successfully predicted which of 

 the remaining colonies would prove to be male. 



