THE PENNATULIDA DREDGED BY H.M.S. " PORCUPINE." 463 



Family 4. Protoptiliclse. 

 Genus Protoptilum (Koll.). 



Protoptilum Carpenteri (Koll.). 



Two fragments of the rachis of this species were obtained at Station 36, 

 1869, the one 22 mm. in length, the other 38 mm., but with the sarcosome 

 stripped from the axis at both ends. Both agree well with the type specimen 

 figured and described by Kolliker, but are not identical with it, though it was 

 also dredged by the " Porcupine." In the one specimen the autozooicls are 

 distinctly arranged in groups of three each, the median dorsal one projecting 

 more outwards than, and being slightly anterior to, the two lateral. In the 

 other, they are placed more closely together, and no regular arrangement is 

 recognisable. 



With the exception of a narrow median ventral stripe, which is of a yellowish 

 tint, the whole colony is of a brilliant red, the colour being due to the spicules, 

 which on the ventral stripe are almost completely absent. Generally two pro- 

 minent marginal teeth are placed on the abaxial edge of the calyx, and a vary- 

 ing number of lesser ones is also present. 



Koll. (3), p. 274, pi. xxiv. figs. 223, 224. 



Geographical Distribution. 



With regard to the horizontal distribution, it is worthy of remark that 

 Deutocaulon Hystricis adds another to the simple forms already obtained in 

 the North Atlantic and the North Sea (Lygomorpha, Svava, Cladiscus), but that 

 the genus to which it most closely approximates, viz., Protocaulon, has been 

 obtained from Japan only. The latter observation is of especial interest, because 

 not only in the facies of the terrestrial fauna, but also in the fishes, marine 

 shells (Gwyn Jeffreys, Jour. Linn. Soc. Zool., xii. pp. 100-109, 1876), and 

 Ophiurids (Hoyle, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., xii. p. 717), a close relation between 

 the North Atlantic and Japanese faunas has been traced. The distribution of 

 Svava glacialis is by our specimens extended several degrees N. and W. 



The vertical distribution of Deutocaulon, dredged only just below the 

 100 fathom line, and next to Protocaulon the simplest Pennatulid recorded, is 

 a direct contradiction to the assertion of Kolliker (2) that the simplest 

 Pennatulida inhabit only great depths. 



