7 
stem, though this is not the usual habit of the species; but then 
there is no argument against the possibility, that the colonies, 
mentioned by B r o c h, belong to the same species as J å d e r h o 1 m’s H. 
telescopicum from the Beering Sea; and as the most of Broch’s 
colonies have the shape of H. minutum, one should be inclined to 
tbink, that as well these colonies as the polysiphonic colony with 
the elliptical male gonothecæ, described by Jade rholm, belong in 
faet to the very mueh variable arctic species H. minutum Broch. 
Taking into consideration how many examples we know of 
different modes of growth and different shapes of colony within one 
and the same species or in undoubtedly nearly related forms, it 
seems very peculiar, that some authors still insist that the shape 
of the colony is an important systematic character. In his papers 
(1892 and 1913) Le vins en has given a good deal of examples from 
the Sertularidæ showing the untenability of a hydroid system based 
on the colonial form, and one should hardly think, that anybody 
would nevertheless maintain the systematic principles given by 
Schneider, accepted with enthusiasm by Bonnevie and Nutting, 
partly also by Jaderholm and others, if any regard at all is 
taken to the lot of contradictory facts which can be found within 
several groups and families of hydroids. Halecium curvicaule and 
the above mentioned colonies of Halecium minutum seem to me to 
furnish a new and very good proof of the unfitness of the colonial 
characters for systematic purposes. 
Halecium minutum with female gonothecæ are found on Fylla’s 
Banke ofi Godthaab, Stat. 40 c (several colonies on Bonneviella 
grandis ), in Godthaab Fjord, Stat. 52 (several colonies on Halecium 
muricatum), and on Store Hellefiskebanke off Holstensborg, Stat. 397 
(a few small colonies on a stem of Thujaria). 
The species has certainly a wide distribution in the arctic 
regions, but as sterile colonies of these and similar species cannot 
be distinguished with certainty and as there exists a great deal of 
confusion as regards the limitation of several species of the genus, 
it is impossible at present to give the geographical distribution of 
the species. 
