BY W. M. BALE. 759 



plentiful, and in vai'ious stages of development ; those which 

 were entire und unopened contained a slender blastostyle bearing 

 two gonophores. The summit of the blastostyle is trumpet- 

 shaped and apparently open, bnt no tentacles are present. The 

 terminal portion appears to fall off before the maturity of the 

 second gonophore ; at least it was absent from those capsules 

 from which the primary gonophore had been extruded. The 

 gonophore seemed to contain three or four large ova grouped 

 above a stout spadix, but the specimens were not sufficiently well 

 preserved to place the structure beyond doubt. The aperture of 

 the ripe gonotheca, with its thi'ee or four eiiiarginations and 

 corresponding opercular divisions, strongly resembles the aperture 

 of the hydrothecte in some species of Sertularella. 



HALECIID.^ 



Halecium gracile, n.sp. 



(Plate XIV., tigs. 1-3). 



Hydrophyton slender, monosiphonic, attaining a height of about 

 5 inch ; hydrorhiza climbing over other hydroids ; branches some- 

 what straggling, variable in length, stem and branches slightly 

 ilexuous, divided into moderately long internodes, by twisted 

 oblique joints which slope alternately in opposite directions, each 

 internode bearing a calycle close to its upper extremity. Calycles 

 alternate, varying from almost tubular to funnel-shaped, and often 

 with other calycles springing from within them ; margin expanding, 

 strongly everted ; basal pai-t of the calycle sometimes ringed. 



Gonothecae, — female, large, ovate, compressed, spoi-osac decidedly 

 narrower than the ca])sule, with a space at the upper part not 

 occupied by ova : — male smaller, club-shaped in outline. 



Iluh. — Port Stephens, on an Aglaopheiiia ; Port Jackson, on a 

 Tubularia. 



This species differs from most others in being slender and 

 monosiphonic. Each internode gives oft" primarily a single calycle, 



