CouGHTREY. — Notes 071 the Few Zealand Hydroidere. 281 



Art. XLII. — Notes on the New Zealand Hydroidese. 



By MlLLEN CoUGHTREY. 



Plate XX. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 2^t1i May, 1874.] 



The following notes may be of use to co-workers in this department of 

 zoology. 



The pleasure derived from the study of these creatures has more than 

 repaid me for the labour expended on them, and I trust the following 

 descriptions, accompanied by the illustrations, may lead others to enjoy the 

 same pleasure. 



Many friends have assisted me in obtaining material, none more so than 

 Captain F. W. Hutton, who kindly placed at my disposal his type collection 

 and lent me some specimens he had recently collected j these, with many others 

 gathered during healthy and enjoyable rambles, have been carefully compared 

 with one another, and with the original descriptions. Several new species 

 have been added, some old ones have been reduced to varieties, and the 

 descriptions of the remaining species amplified wherever it seemed to me 

 necessary. 



The works at my command have been : — 



Captain Hutton's paper on the New Zealand Sertularians, Trans. N. Z. 

 Inst., Vol. Y., 1872. 



Johnston's British Zoophytes, Yols. 1 and 2. 



Gray's Catalogue in Dieffenbach's New Zealand. 



Monograph on Gymnoblastic Hydroids, by Professor Allman. 



I regret the absence of Hincks' Britisjh Hydroid Zoophytes. 



Sub-order — Sertularid^. 

 " Hydrosoma fixed plant-like, horny, variously branched ; polypites 

 hydraform, sessile, protected by hydrothecse, and connected by a csenosarc, 

 never terminal ; reproductive organs contained in horny deciduous cells 

 scattered over the hydrosoma." Medusoids always fixed. 



Genus Sertularia. 



Sertularia johnstonii, Gray, Dieff. N.. Z., II., p. 294. 



This widely distributed species does not agree with Sertularia ru^osa, 

 Johnst.*, nor with S. patagonica, D'Orbigny. In the description given by 

 Captain Hutton, some of its chief characters are omitted, and I therefore 

 substitute the following description : — 



Hydrophyton lax and delicate ; hydrocaulis spreading dichotomously 



* Brit. Zooph., Vol. I, p. 164. 



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