94 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
long, by 0" - 02 or - 025 wide ; within the area a slight ridge, 1 forming a very obscure 
secondary area ; surface nearly even. Orifice placed above the centre, semicircular, 
with a straight, entire, lower border. Operculum semicircular, 0 //- 008 x '0055. Surface 
beneath the overlying epitheca finely granular. Avicularia, 0. 
Habitat. — Station 323, lat. 35° 39' S., long. 50° 47' W., 1900 fathoms, blue mud. 
Station 122, lat. 9° 5' S., long. 34° 50' W., 350 fathoms, red mud. Station 157, 
lat. 53° 55' S., long. 108° 35' E., 1950 fathoms^ Diatom ooze. Station 13, lat. 21° 38' N., 
long. 44° 39' W., 1900 fathoms, Globigerina ooze. 
This beautiful species differs from all the other cylindrical Salicornarice , in its being con- 
tinuous and without the least trace of any articulation, notwithstanding the circumstance 
that it is rooted by radical fibres, and not by a calcareous base. In the apparently total 
absence also of any avicularian organs, it departs from all other 
Salicornarice, at present known, as well as in the apparent want 
of any ovarian pores. It differs also in the arrangement of the 
oral chitinous armature, inasmuch as that the lateral trabeculae 
are represented by a continuous ring, on which a slight projection 
on each side serves for the articulation of the operculum. In 
many respects the species appears to constitute a transition 
between Salicornaria and Melicerita. 
It is a form also of considerable interest with respect to its 
habitat. Of the four Stations at which it was procured, three 
belong to the Atlantic and one to the South Indian or Kerguelen region, and in three out 
of the four it came up from a depth of 1900 fathoms, and in the other probably from one 
of 400 fathoms. It may be regarded therefore distinctively as a deep-water form, and 
connected with this it will be as well to describe its common mode of attachment. 
The disposition of the radicells in this case presents a curious peculiarity. The 
bundle of fibres constituting a rather long flexible stem is formed by separate tubules, 
which issue from the lower part of a certain number of the lowermost six or eight zocecia. 
But the lowermost of these, or what might be termed the primary zooecium, differs ap- 
parently in no respect from the rest. The growth may be said to start at once in its 
complete form. Immediately below this primary cell the tubes suddenly coalesce in an 
irregular manner, and at the same time become flattened out into broad ligulate bands 
which, after they have attained a length of an inch or more break up again into an 
inextricable tuft of filaments of the most unequal size, which ultimately terminate in 
irregularly beaded fibres. Thus there is formed a spongy mass, in the interstices of 
which all kinds of small bodies are entangled, such as Globigerince and other Foraminifera, 
sponge spicules, &c. But it should be noted that in more than one respect the radical 
1 Omitted in the figure. 
