VINE : BRITISH PALEOZOIC CTENOSTOMATOUS POLYZOA. 77 
In 1881 I published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 
Society'" the names of two Silurian species as members of Ascodictya, 
as follows : — 
Ascodictyon stellatum, var. Siluriense, Vine, p. 618. 
radians ? Nich. and Eth. (Provisional) p. 619. 
In Feb., 1882, in another paper, " Notes of the Polyzoa of the 
Wenlock Shales," I gave fuller details of Ascodictya species, with 
figures, as follows : — 
5. Ascodictyon stellatum, var. Siluriense, Vine, p. 52, figs. 1-2. 
6. „ radiciforme, Vine, p. 53, fig. 3. 
7. „ filiforme, Vine, p. 54. 
In 1884, in the Annals and Mag. Nat. History, I did my best to 
grapple with the systematic position of the fossils, which had by that 
time proved to be very abundant both as individuals, specific and 
varietal, in the Wenlock Shales. After reviewing the whole of the 
literature known to me up to date, giving the various opinions of 
authors already published, I ventured on a new departure on my own 
account. On page 87 1 remarked, ''There are not, so far as I am 
aware, any Cyclostomatous Polyzoa, which may be considered truly 
Stoloniferous. Some of the Hydrozoa are, but I know of none whose 
stolons are adherent to stone or shell, such as are found in these 
ancient rocks ; neither am I aware that the Stoloniferous Ctenosto- 
matous Pofyzoa are adherent to stone and shell, like Ascodictyon or 
Rhopalonaria. Yet it seems to me that we have in Ascodictyon 
filiforme,\ at least, primitive representatives of Stoloniferous Vesicu- 
lariidie, such as Vesicularia or Bowerbankia, or possibly some mem- 
ber of the more humble race of the Entoprocta. BarroisJ has already 
. . . spoken of a pro-Bryozoan race, composed of free swimming 
organisms. May [not] Ascodictyon be the attached or larval form of 
some of the as yet unknown pre-Upper-Silnrian types of organic life, 
Polyzoan or otherwise ? " 
* Silurian Uniserial Stomatopora and Ascodictya. Nov., pp. 613-619. 
+ This species is fully described in the paper referred to, Ann. Mag. Nat. 
Hist., Aug., 1884, p. 78. 
JOn the Embryogeny of the Cyclostomatous Polyzoa, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. , 
Nov., 1882, p. 402. 
