CHABACTERS OF THE GENUS LOPHOPTTS. 



63 



root of arm to tip of furthest tentacle, about 1 millim. Maximum 

 length of tentacles (in spirit specimens) about 1 millim. 



Statoblast about '85-95 millim. long by '7 millim. broad; 

 annulus about '22 wide at ends, about -15 millim. at sides ; cells 

 of annulus about '01 to "05 millim. broad. 



Habitat. Paramatta Eiver, New South "Wales. 



The chief points distinguishing this species from L. crystallinus 

 appear to be the absence of terminal angles to the statoblast, and 

 the knobbed form of the inner end of the endocyst. The ten- 

 tacles are also probably far longer than in L. crystallinus. No 

 other species of the genus is known — that form ass^igned to it by 

 Mr. Carter, from Bombay, evidently being rightly removed from 

 Lophopus by Hyatt and JuUien. I have bestowed upon the 

 species under notice the name of its indefatigable discoverer. 

 Dr. von Lendenfeld, not only on account of his discovery, and 

 of the very rem.arkable manner in which he has preserved the 

 specimen, which shows almost all its characters as in life, but also 

 in commemoration of his generosity in presenting it to the 

 Natural History Museum, and in allowing me to describe a new 

 form, systematically and geographically of such high interest. 



The particular specimen from w hich this description is drawu 

 up coats some thin fasciated vegetable stems for a length of 

 31 inches, but probably was much more extensive originally ; 

 the mass thus formed is about 7 millim. in greatest diameter. 

 The statoblasts are described from a specimen found iu a dead 

 colony, obtained at the same spot, which exhibits the characters 

 of the ectocyst sufficiently for identification. The conditions 

 under which the colonies are growing (practically covering the 

 entire circumference of the object in which they rest) almost 

 preclude the possibility of such approaches to locomotion as have 

 been sometimes attributed to L. crystalliiius ; at the same time 

 their attachment to the base is very slight. The body of the 

 statoblast is dark umber-brown, the annulus colourless. 



Minute Structure. — Staining with borax carmine has enabled 

 me, in the excellent state of preservation of the specimen, to 

 demonstrate clearly that the outermost layer of the ectocyst 

 consists of substellate nucleated cells ; these are most usually 

 roughly oblong in shape, with the branches chiefly at the poles, 

 and measure about •015-*02 by '005 millim., with a small nucleus 

 and punctiform nucleolus ; but interspersed abundantly among 

 them are some cells with a globular central mass about '01 millim. 



6* 



