30 LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
pear shape, being attached at the narrow end (PI. IIL., 
fig. 1). The adult assumes countless forms, but is in 
the main cylindrical, sometimes compressed laterally, 
branches being given off which are also cylindrical and 
very irregularly placed, but mostly at right angles to the 
main axis. 
Under the microscope the surface is seen to be raised 
into a great number of blunt papillae, which are closely 
packed, but in no definite order. 
On making a transverse section, the true relations of the 
polypides are seen. ‘The cells are arranged radially, the 
mouth opening on the exterior. They are embedded in a 
gelatinous mass, and the core of the cylinder consists of a 
mass of cells of a gelatinous nature, containing a liquid. 
The gelatinous portion is probably comparable to the 
calcareous parts of some of the other Polyzoa, and the 
general appearance is strongly suggestive of Salicornaria, 
which is also cylindrical and has its polypides radially 
arranged, but with the cells embedded in a calcareous 
covering. 
In some specimens of Alcyonidium gelatinosum, in fact 
in all those I have examined in the fresh state from the 
Liverpool Marine Biology Committee’s district, spicules’ 
are found embedded in the gelatinous part of the colony, 
mostly in the peripheral regions. 
A description of these spicules may be found in the 
Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society, vol. v., 
part ii. They are small in size, the largest not being 
more than ‘14 to °2 mm. in length, and in width they are 
about ‘(05 mm. In shape they are rudely cylindrical and 
slightly curved, some being a simple half-moon and others 
S shaped (Pl. III. fig. 2). 
Mr. A. Norman Tate, F.I.C., has kindly examined 
some spicules for me, with the view of arriving at their 
