REPORT ON THE POLYZOA. 
75 
as the above, are: — The existence in the chitinous epithecal membrane, on each side 
close below the mouth, in all three species known to me, of a very minute chitinous 
furcate spiculum, as it may be termed, which is lodged within the thickness of the epithecal 
membrane. These spicula are probably to some extent homologous with the 
chitinous trabeculae on each side the orifice in all the Salicornariadae, and which 
in that Family serve as supports for the articulation of the elaborate opercula with 
which all its members are furnished. Another circumstance should also be mentioned, 
though not as by any means a distinctive character, as it will probably be found of 
frequent occurrence, viz., the existence of a delicate chitinous hollow filament, which 
also, as in the Salicornariadse, follows the contour of the frontal areas, and is apparently 
continuous throughout the zoarium, serving, it may be imagined, as a channel of com- 
munication throughout the entire zoarium, or where the latter is divided into inter- 
nodes, throughout each separate segment. 
Steganoporella magnilabris, Busk (sp.) (PI. XXIII. fig. 2). 
Membranipora magnilabris, Bk., Brit. Mus. Cat., p. 62, pi. lxv. fig. 4. 
Steginoporella elegans, Smitt, Florid. Bryoz. (nec. Eschar a elegans, M. E.). 
Steganoporella magnilabris, Hincks; Waters; Macgilliv., Nat. Hist. Viet., Dec. vi. p. 43, 
pi. lx. fig. 1. 
1 Biflustra crassa, Haswell. 
Steganoporella neo-zelanica (sp.), Waters. 
Character . — Zoarium polymorphous ; erect, foliaceous, expanded or branched, uni- 
or bi-laminar (escharine form); or subcrustaceous or decumbent (membraniporidan form); 
or tubular (siphonella-form). Zooecia oblong, arched above ; border thick, rounded, 
granular, usually a broad tooth-like articular projection on each side about the middle. 
In the natural state, the frontal area is covered in by a delicate chitinous membrane, 
the upper half of which is free and contains the external oral orifice and operculum, and 
towards each side a minute furcate trabecula; the lower half closely adnate to the subjacent 
calcareous perforated lamina. Opercula suborbicular, of two kinds, one larger (ooecial ?), 
in which the membrane is supported by a chitinous framework, consisting of two con- 
vergent rods ; and the other smaller (zooecial), in which the rods are represented by a 
continuous chitinous bow. In both the margin of the operculum is furnished on the 
posterior aspect with a row r of acute, conical, flexible spicules. 
Habitat . — Off Honoruru, Sandwich Islands, 20 to 40 fathoms (ramose or escharine 
form). 
[Abrolhos Islet, Darwin; Algoa Bay, Bowerbank ; Port Dalrymple, Yoy. of Rattles., 
(hemescharine form); Gulf of Florida, Pourtales (escharine- and siphonella-forms), Smitt; 
? Miocene fossil, Gipps Land, Waters (escharine form); Tongatabou, Sir E. Home.] 
In his account of the Floridan Bryozoa, Professor Smitt gives Eschara elegans of 
