Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

;342 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA.interval of 145 millim., in planes which are at right angles withOlio another. The hard axis is tough and flexible ; its colour isthat of whalebone at the basal end, where it is 1-5 millim, in diameter; it is about '6 millim. thick at the apex of the stouter branch.The cortex is firm, roughened by the slight projection of the verrucse,which usually form three alternating rows on each side of a slightmedian bare space. The verructe, which are open, are oval elevations,just sufficiently raised to render the surface of the cortexuneven ; their loug axis follows that of the stem or branch, and isabout '6 millim. long ; they are not swollen wart-like, but ratherresemble the reverse side of holes made in paper by thrusts with asharp point, whereby a thin rim of broken paper is made to extrudeat the opposite side to that from which the hole is made. Betweenthe verrucas the cortex is smooth or even glabrous. Colour dullcrimson. Cortical spicules fusiform, with two main whorls, distinctfrom each other, of distinct, low, rough tubercles ; a fewlarger ones have two smaller subterminal whorls, distinct fromthe median ones, of similar character, and beyond them the apexis formed by a pointed or irregular, more or less tuberculate endbut in most cases the outer pair of whorls practically terminatethe spicule ; size -OST to -lUG by -053 millim. ; colour deep crimson.Hah. Port Deuison, Queensland, 4 fms. ; bottom rock.Obs. The only points in which I find this species to differ fi'omVerrill's description are the slightly inferior diameter of the spicules,the absence of longitudinal grooves to the stem &c., the crimsonredcolour, the branching not being confined to one plane.If this species should prove to be identical with Verrill's it willbe a remarkable case of distribution, as the latter was obtainedfrom the Bay of Panama ; but it must be remembered that thespecimen is single and imperfect.16. Leptogorgia aiistraliensis. (Plate XXXYI. figs. C, C, c, c.)Corallum flabelliform, branching in one plane. A small number(two or three) of main branches are given off b}^ the shortcommon stem, and are pinnate at short intervals with loug simplepinnte or branchlets, generally alternate, diminishing in lengthtowards the ends of the branches ; a few pinna3 may be themselvespinnate. Base thin, small. Main stem cylindrical. The mainbranches are almost straight, the pinnoD curve upwards ; bothbranches and piiinaj are much flattened out laterally, tapering toslender, slightly hastate apices. Main stem in large adult specimensabout (j millim. in diameter, main branches 5 millim. at base : pinnaeranging in size from 15 centim. in length by 2| millim. in greatestdiameter to 6 centim. by 1 millim., in exceptional cases 20 centim.(8 inches) long. Surface almost smooth, but for the polype-cellsand some grooves and raised lines. The main stem is marked bya few shallow longitudinal furrows ; the branches are provided onboth the anterior and posterior faces with a more or less distinctfurrow, slightly undulating (sometimes very tortuous, much inter-