OCR Text |
Show 1888.] MR. G. H. FOWLER ON A NEW PENNATULA. 139 the remaining six, and supply the young polyp with nutritive fluid from below ; this possible function of the siphonoglyphe is therefore forestalled. Further observations on similar conditions-gemmation, fission, reproduction of lost parts, &c.-are much to be desired. The spicules in the polyps, leaves, and rachis, are long and fusiform, and apparently triradiate in section (fig. 3 a); they are very long, measuring from '8 to 15 millim. Those which colour the bulbous swelling on the stalk (fig. 3 b) are dumbbell-shaped, and apparently surmounted by a strong ridge; they measure about •14X'0l millim., and are less strongly tinted than those of the feather. The axis, which is less hard than is generally the case, is triangular in section and bent in a hook below. Of Pennatu/ce previously described, the present species comes Fig. 3. a. Fusiform spicule, distributed over the feather and rachis, X 47; b. D u m b bell- shaped spicules from the bulbous swelling of the stalk, X 210. nearest to P. naresii (Kolliker, • Chall.' Rep. Zool. vol. i. p. 2, pi. figs. 1, 2). From this, however, it differs in tbe number of the rudimentary leaves, the absence of wart-like protuberances on the concave border of the leaf, the freedom of the mid-dorsal line of the rachis, as also in several other points ; while the row of immature zooids is characteristic of both forms. At two points easily recognizable on the left-hand side of Plate VI., parts of two leaves have apparently been nibbled away, producing a marked hypertrophy of the remaining polyps. The dimensions are given in tabular form :- millim. Total length (incomplete) 178 Length of rachis 118 Diameter of rachis 9 Breadth of feather 70 Length of stalk GO Diameter of stalk 4 |