93 



in a spherical, transparent body near the tip of the basal side of the ascending 

 part of the zooecium in a large number of specimens of Aetea anguina, and con- 

 siders this to be an ooecium. The great transparency of this little globe, which 

 has enabled Waters to count the cell-divisions of the egg, seems to indicate, 

 that it is not calcareous, and this fact in connection with its for an ocecium, 

 very unusual position on the basal side of the zooecium, speaks decidedly against 

 the ooecial nature of these globes. I must therefore regard the supposed ovicellular 

 wall only as a shell membrane surrounding the egg. 



Smitt' has already called attention to the great agreement between the members 

 of this familj' and the Ctenostomata; but when he specially compares Aetea with 

 the family Vesiculariidae, we must remark, that this genus shows a much greater 

 agreement with the families Cylindroeciidae and Victor ellidae, in which the zooecium 

 according to Hincks also consists of an adherent and an ascending portion, while 

 they have no real stolon. In all Ctenostome families, where the zooecia issue from 

 a stem or stolon consisting of kenozocecia, the zooecia die away and can be 

 renewed, whilst such a renewal does not take place where there is no stolon, 

 as in the two above-mentioned families, and according to this, the peduncles in 

 Triticella must belong to the stolon and not to the individual zooecia. Smitt' 

 has also called attention to the fact that Aetea, in the cylindrical form of the 

 zooecia and the rich development of pores, shows agreement with the Cyclostomata, 

 and he imagines the possibility that the latter may have had a Ctenostome origin. 

 Without entering further into this question I wish only to point out in this 

 connection that in the Cyclostome species Stomatopora gallica d'Orb. ^ the zooe- 

 cium, as in Aetea, consists of a decumbent and an ascending part. On the other 

 hand, the agreement which an Aetea shows with such a species as yMucronella< 

 cothurnica Kirk, is of quite a superficial nature, as the ascending tube-shaped 

 portion in the last-mentioned species is only a peristom and cannot therefore be 

 compared with the ascending portion in an Aetea, which has an operculum 

 near the tip. 



Family Bicellariidae. 



Eucratiidae Hincks, Notamiidae Hincks. 

 (Pis. III-V). 



The zooecia as a rule slightly calcified and in most cases with a large mem- 

 branous frontal area. Where a distal wall is developed (wanting in Beania and 

 Stolonella) it is more or less ascending and its basal edge is then placed more or 



' 99 a, p. 460. '■' 86, PL 759, figs. 1—3. 



