128 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



previous authors, lie cannot identify it with certainty with any form 

 which has previously received a specific name, and therefore suggests 

 the name C. ramosa, in allusion to the large number of branches given 

 off by a single internode. The important characters in this new species 

 are in the habit and ovicells. In form the zoarium is rather strag- 

 gling, the numerous branches being arranged in fan-shaped systems, 

 with little or no tendency to curve inwards. The branching is more 

 developed than in any other British species. The ovicell is large, 

 regularly pear-shaped, with a circular aperture borne on a long and 

 very conspicuous funnel-shaped tube, much wider at its summit than 

 at its base. 



Harmer has only obtained his species from Plymouth, where it is 

 the dominant form ; and from the contents of a bottle obtained either 

 from the Channel Islands or Arran. "Whilst working, from Harmer' s 

 description, at various forms of Crisia obtained from Dublin Bay, I 

 came across a colony which I recognized as having the characters of 

 the ovicell, which he describes and figures for C. ramosa. To make 

 absolutely sure, I sent off a mounted specimen to Mr. Harmer, and he 

 very kindly confirmed me in my identification. It does not seem to 

 be very abundant in Dublin Bay, and I have not obtained it from any 

 other Irish locality. 



Localities. — Plymouth, abundant (Harmer) : Channel Islands or 

 Arran (Scotland) (Harmer) : Dublin Bay (J. E. Duerden). 



Sub-order III.— CTENOSTOMATA, Busk. 

 Eamily . — Tkiticellid^ . 



The dredgings on the west-coast of Ireland have proved them- 

 selves very rich in species belonging to this Ctenostomatous family, 

 which contains the two genera, Triticella and Hippuraria. Of the four 

 species described by Mr. Hincks, in his " British Marine Polyzoa," 

 Triticella Jlava, Dalyell, is considered a doubtful species ; Hippura/ria 

 egertoni, Busk, has only been obtained from one locality, namely, 

 Berehaven, in Bantry Bay ; Triticella horenii, Gr. 0. Sars, has only 

 previously been obtained from one British locality, Kerrera Sound, 

 near Oban ; Triticella pedicellata, Alder, only from !N'orthumberland. 

 I have to record the occurrence of these two latter species from 

 several Irish localities, and also another species, Triticella hoecTcii, 

 G. 0. Sars, not previously found in British waters. 



Sir J. Dalyell, in 1848, first described a species of the genus 

 Triticella ; but the family, especially as regards T. hoechii and T. 



