REPORT OH THE HYDROIDA. 
11 
moderate length. The hydrophores are often very much extended by the superposition 
of consecutive segments, as many as nine such segments being occasionally present. The 
basal or primary segment is not actuate by its side to the liydrocaulus. The first of the 
accessory segments, or that which immediately succeeds the primary segment, is usually the 
longest, and is always provided with two oblique annuli at its base. The branches spring 
from the sides of the primary segments of the hydrophores. The fasciculation of the 
stem and larger branches would seem to cease soon, leaving an extensive portion of the 
colony to be continued in a monosiphonic condition for the remainder of its course. 
The specimen consists of a portion of a colony about two inches in height, and it is 
probable that the height attained by the entire colony does not much exceed that of the 
specimen. 
Halecium flexile, n. sp. (PI. V. figs. 2, 2a). 
Trophosome. — Hydrocaulus attaining a height of about four inches ; main stem and 
principal branches fascicled, becoming monosiphonic towards the distal portion of the 
colony, slender and flexile ; ramification pinnate and alternate, every branch springing 
from the base of a hydrophore, divided by oblique joints into moderately long internodes, 
each internode with a shallow annular constriction at its proximal end. Hydrophores 
cylindrical, usually prolonged by several consecutive similar segments. 
Gonosome. — Gonangia (male ?) oboviform capsules springing by a short peduncle from 
the side of the basal segment of the hydrophore, and provided with a terminal orifice. 
Locality. — Station 145, off Marion Island; depth, 50 fathoms. 
Station 312, Port Famine, Patagonia; lat. 53° 37' 30 ,/ S., long. 70° 65' 0" W.; 
depth, 9 fathoms. 
This is a flexile and graceful species, thus contrasting in its habit with the rigidity 
which is characteristic of many species of Halecium. The hydrophores have their 
basal segment standing out free from the internode, while they are in almost every 
instance prolonged by the superposition of several similar segments. 
The soft parts were sufficiently well preserved in the specimens to allow of their 
more important details of form being observed. The liydranths, which are very large, 
have, as in other species of Halecium, a well-defined, thick, fusiform dilatation of the 
body just behind the tentacles. These spring from the margin of an expanded disc, 
which on its upper side carries the conical hypostome, and are about twelve in number. 
Two very different localities, Marion Island and the region off Tierra del Fuego, have 
yielded specimens of Halecium flexile; at least I do not hesitate in referring the 
specimens from both of these localities to the same species, for though no gonosome 
is present in the examples coming from the region of Tierra del Fuego, the trophosome 
of these is specifically indistinguishable from that of the others. 
