Volume I Part 34 (1/2)

Habitat: Ba.s.s Strait? This species also occurs in New Zealand.

Colour brown, loosely branched and several inches high. Distinguished readily by the cribriform aspect of the front of the cell, and by the curiously formed central orifice, and by the absence of any superior appendage to the avicularium.

b. Vittatae.

Cells furnished with a narrow elongated band or vitta on each side, without fenestrae. Ovicells not terminal, galeriform.

8. C. formosa, n. sp.

Cells oval; avicularia large, flat, or cupped above. Vittae elliptical, rather anterior.

Habitat: Swan Island, Banks Strait.

Colour light plumbeous. Parasitic upon C. margaritacea. The cells are the largest of any in the Vittate division, and very regular and uniform in size and outline. The more distinctive characters are taken from the comparatively broad vittae, and the flat or cupped upper surface of the avicularia, which are usually continued downwards into a prominent ridge or ala.

9. C. gibbosa, n. sp.

Cells pyriform, ventricose posteriorly, much attenuated at bottom.

Avicularia small, placed in front close to the sides of the mouth, at the base of strong conical pointed processes which project in front, and are connected across the top of the cell by a prominent toothed ridge. Vittae long linear, entirely lateral.

Habitat: Prince of Wales Channel, Torres Strait, 9 fathoms, mud.

Of a dark lead colour, when dry. Forms an elegantly branched bush about two inches high. The gibbous form of the cells, and the peculiar anterior position of the avicularia, at the base of the projecting lateral processes, at once distinguish it from all the other vittate species. The toothed (sometimes entire) ridge extending between the two lateral processes across the top of the cell and overlapping the mouth like a penthouse is also a very peculiar feature.

10. C. elegans, n. sp. Table 1 figure 2.

Cells elongated ovoid; avicularia large and projecting, without any superior appendage; vittae narrow, rather anterior.

Habitat: Ba.s.s Strait, 48 fathoms. Port Dalrymple, on stones at low water.

A delicate and beautiful parasitic species; the branches slender and spreading; colour white and very transparent. Cells regular and uniform in size and shape. A very similar if not identical species occurs in Algoa Bay, South Africa, the only difference between them being that the latter is rather larger and has the vittae much longer; in the Australian forms these bands do not reach above the middle of the cell, whilst in the South African they extend as high as the mouth.

11. C. cornuta, n. sp.

Cells oval; avicularia in many cells wholly transformed into long pointed retrocedent spines, on one or both sides, in others into shorter spines or unaltered. Vittae linear, extremely narrow, entirely lateral, and extending the whole length of the cell from the base of the avicularium.

Habitat: Ba.s.s Strait, 45 fathoms.

Colour yellowish white, growth small; parasitic upon C. amphora. As some difficulty might be experienced in the discrimination of this species from C. elegans, and another South African species (not the variety of C.

elegans above noticed) it is requisite to remark that the long retrocedent spines when present are not placed upon or superadded to the avicularia, but that they seem to represent an aborted or transformed state of those organs. They vary much in length and size in different cells, and even in those of the same branch; as it frequently happens that there is a spine, usually of diminutive size, on one side and a very large avicularium on the other, and sometimes (but rarely) an avicularium of more moderate size on both sides. But the character of the species by which it is more particularly distinguished consists in the presence on a great many cells, in one part or other of the polyzoary, of the two large and strong spines projecting BACKWARDS. This retrocession of the spines is alone a sufficient character to distinguish the present species from the South African form above alluded to (C. taurina, B.) And the length and lateral position of the vittae would distinguish the unarmed cells from those of C. elegans.

12. C. umbonata, n. sp.

Cells more or less pyriform, alate, narrow below, bulging or ventricose upwards. Avicularia large and strong. Vittae strap-shaped, anterior, extending from the level of the mouth to the bottom of the cell, with elevated ac.u.minate papillae or short spines. A broad compressed projecting process on the middle of the back.

Habitat: Ba.s.s Strait, 45 fathoms.

The cells in this species are small, inflated or ventricose, and as it were sub-globular above, becoming much attenuated below--but the cavity of the cell does not appear to extend into this contracted portion, in which is contained the connecting tube strengthened by calcareous matter--the inferior continuation of the lateral alae, which descend from the base of the avicularium. Owing to the large size of the avicularia, the upper part of the cell is much widened, and the whole acquires somewhat of a triangular form, and has a peculiar rugose aspect, derived, in part also, from the large size and elevation of the ac.u.minated papillae, not only of the vittae but on the surface of the cell itself.