| OCR Text |
Show 378 ON SEA-PENS OF THE FAMILY VERETILLIDJE. [Apr. 17, piece, 3 mm. long, was about 7 mm. distant from the upper end of the rhachis; the lower end of the other piece, 9 m m . long, was about 5 m m . from the lower end of the stalk. The two fragments together measured therefore about 12 m m . and were 30 mm. apart. Nothing in the appearance of the colony indicated, either before or during dissection, that the fracture of the axis was attributable to rough treatment after death, and from the appearance of the fractured surfaces I incline to think that the break occurred during life. In the second specimen the axis was unbroken ; it measured a little less than 12 m m . in length, and lay at the junction of stalk and rhachis. In both cases the axis was pointed at both ends, and measured -43--48 m m . in diameter; its surface was covered by irregular warts and knobs, and its colour was a brilliant white. The spicules are of different size and character in rhachis and stalk. In the rhachis (fig. 3) they take the shape of elongate needles of irregular form (cl). These are very numerous, and are distributed throughout the ccenosarc. A few are bifurcated (a), or carry a prominence at one side (b) ; rarely one meets with " Vierlinge/' Au average spicule of the needle type measures 480 p x 32 p.-In the stem (fig. 4) the spicules were very much smaller than in the rhachis, as will be seen by the magnification of the two figures. By far the greater number are regularly elliptical (a), an average specimen measuring 49 u x 24 p. Scattered sparsely among these are needles of the same character as those of the rhachis (b), but very much shorter ; they are about 208 p x 32 p. " Vierlinge " are fairly numerous (c). It is possible, but, I think, unlikely, that the specimens under description may prove to be old specimens of Cavernularia lutkeni (Koll.), which also came from the Bay of Bengal. The proportionate dimensions of the colony are not quite close enough to allow of this determination ; expressed in percentages of total length they are :- C. maldbarica... Rhachis. Length. 70 78 Breadth. 37 58 Stem. Length. 28-5 22 Breadth. 14 14 Axis. Length. 36? 24 Further, the very numerous elliptical spicules of the stalk are not mentioned by Kolliker (' Pennatulida,' p. 347); the polyps of C. lutkeni are described as " entferntstehend," and the shape of the colony (Koll. Penn. pi. xxii. fig. 211) is quite unlike that of our specimens. Locality. Calicut, Malabar Coast. |
