THE ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. [FIFTH SERIES.] No. 96. DECEMBER 1885. XXXVIII.— TAe Victorella pavida of Saville Kent. By E. C. BOUSFIELD, L.R.C.P., Lond. [Plate XII. fig3. 1-3.] Having recently been so fortunate as to meet with a consi-derable supply of this beautiful and interesting polyzoon, I propose in the following notes to give a description of it, with special reference to the observations of the naturalist who first found it and described it at some length in the ' Quar-terly Journal of Microscopical Science ' (N. S. vol. x. p. 34, with pi. iv.). As my own observations differ in one or two essential points from Mr. Kent's, I append the systematic description which he formulated : — " Family Homodiaetidse. " Victorella pavida, " Polypidom minute, confervoid, adherent or semierect, irregularly branched. Tentacles eight in number ; no gizzard. Inhabiting brackish water. Parasitic on the polypary of Cordylo^hora lacustris.^' Mr. Hincks, in liis ' Marine Polyzoa,' describes the Victo-rella, but with important differences from the statements of Mr. Kent, and, in fact, by combining the two accounts it is possible to arrive at conclusions somewhat approaching the truth. Mr. Hincks, however, had not, I believe, the opportunity Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xvi. 28
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