44 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



is mentioned by Professor Leidy^ as occurring in Urnatella, but I have not found it 

 referred to by any other writers on the Pedicelhnea. 



PI. X. fig. 1, represents a group of buds at the end of one of the branches, and 

 also shows the barrel-shaped expansion at the base of one of the peduncles, from which 

 the transparent ringed covering has been partially loosened and torn off by the process of 

 boiling. Figs. 3 to 5 on the same plate are taken from sketches made by the late Sir 

 C. Wyville Thomson when the specimens were fresh and alive. 



(2) Ascopodaria discreta, n. sp. (PI. X. figs. 6-12). 



Character.— Th.Q zoarium consists of a creeping stoloniferous stem, jointed at 

 intervals where the branches are given off or where the polypides arise. The deciduous 

 polypides are seated at the upper end of slender chitinous pedicels, which are dilated 

 below into barrel-shaped cylinders that have a thick, ringed, chitinous envelope, and 

 exactly resemble those of the preceding species. The polypiferous peduncles are seated 

 by a broad base on the stoloniform stems ; usually singly on the somewhat expanded 

 jointed bifurcation of four branches (fig. 11), but sometimes scattered along the stolons 

 (fig. 12). The chitinous pedicels are irregularily punctured by minute funnel-shaped 

 pores. The polypides are united to the pedicels by a spirally ringed flexible joint (fig, 

 12). The tentacles are from sixteen to twenty in number. The pedicels and stolons are 

 of a bright brown, horny colour, the polypides white, and the barrels also white or very 

 light brown, appearing darkest when quite young, the chitinous envelope becoming 

 thinner and more transparent as the animal grows older. 



The total length varies considerably, apparently according to age ; the majority of 

 the older ones measure as much as from 4'25 to 4"4 mm. The polypide being about 

 0-5 X 0'4 mm., the pedicel 3'0 x 0"6 mm., and the barrel 0'7 x 0"24 mm. This species 

 is, therefore, on the whole, taller and more slender than the preceding one. 



Habitat. — Station 135, off Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, 100 to 150 fathoms. 



There were very few specimens in all of this species in the collection, and, therefore, 

 it has not been possible to enter into a full and minute examination of the polypide, but 

 it appears to present all the usual Pedicelline characters. 



' Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., vol. ix. pt. i. p. 13. 



