72 DR. W. RAE SHERRIFFS ON EVOLUTION 



recesses of tlie polyparium there lay a large Opbiuroid, with its 

 arms extending in different directions and raising puzzling ques- 

 tions as to entrance and exit ; for the whole surface of the 

 polyparium is like a thick-set hedge without any gaps. 

 Locality: — Station 164. 



Still another colony, at first sight divergent, agrees so 

 thoroughly in anthocodial architecture and spiculation that 

 separation appears to me impossible. The somewhat looser 

 group of umbels show a marked tendency to grouping in hemi- 

 spherical bunches, especially on one side of the colony ; the 

 contour is somewhat broken up ; the lowest blanches are slightly 

 foliaceous ; the sterile stalk has been broken off, leaving only a 

 short stump ; the general colouring is yellow-white, with white 

 spindles in the polyps and faint rose tips to many of the sup- 

 porting bundles. Yet an examination of the anthocodiae shows 

 the characteristic composition of the points, about 7 pairs of 

 converging spicules, of which the uppermost pair may be slightly 

 larger but do not project. Again, the lower cortex contains 

 massive spindles with high compound warts, a few massive 

 triradiates, many rough spindles curved at one end like a simple 

 bugle, many pseudo-clubs, and very numerous small knobbed and 

 bossed forms like astrospheres. In the canal-wall there are among 

 rough types a number of characteristic, almost smooth, delicate, 

 flat triradiates, quadriradiates, and approximate stars. 



Deduction : — We have here another illustration of the 

 inadvisability of attaching much importance to the vegetative 

 characters. 



In anthocodial architecture this species comes near B. florida, 

 but the shortness of the polyp stalks is too emphatic to be 

 neglected. 



Locality : — Station 258. 



20. Dendroneplithya annectens (sp. n.). (Plate III.) 

 Diagnosis : — Umbellate ; muph branched, but few large 

 branches ; distinctly flattened ; contour not uniform ; basal 

 branches foliaceous; polyps in small bundles of 7-12; polyp 

 stalks very short ; supporting bundle very weak ; point spicules 

 about 8 pairs, equal in size ; crown absent ; grade II. ; spicules : 

 short sterile stalk has irregularly branched, almost stellate, 

 bodies; spindles of the branches often ver}^ lai-ge (6mm.); 

 colourless spindles in the general cortex and stars at the base ; 

 colour : exposed areas on the branches white ; twigs have large 

 orange and crimson spindles, supporting bundles either orange or 

 crimson, pol3'p spicules white. 



Anthocodial Grade and Formula : — 

 11. = 8 p -1- Or -I- very weak S.B. 



