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

ALCYONARIA. 345clavate apex 2 millim. Axis flexible—at base black, 1 millim. indiameter ; near apices dark brown, filiform. Cortex compact, about•3 millim. thick on branches, dirty white in colour, finely granulatedby the surface-spicules. Verrucas equally scattered over all sidesof the stem and branches, though absent at the lower end of thestem, about '5 millim. high ; monticular, with small apical opening.Cortical spicules (i.):— Fusiform, with moderately sharp ends, andcovered with large, transversely extended, rough, blunt tubercles, withdistinct spaces between them, irregularly scattered or sometimesapproaching a whorled arraugement ; size '24 by -087 millim. (ii.)Cylindro-fusiform, with less pointed ends, and covered with small,low, cylindrical tubercles of approximately imiform size, except atthe end, where they become smaller and almost disappear ; size '3Sby •14 millim. (iii.) Pcgtop- shaped, with the broader end slightlypointed itself; tubcrculatcd in same way as (i.); size '28 by "14millim.Hab. Port Darwin, 8-12 fms. ; bottom mud and sand (growingon a Gorgouellid stem).The height of the single dry specimen is 7G millim. (3 inches),the extreme width -23 millim.The spicules of this species have tubercles of a somewhat differentcharacter from those figured by Verrill for most of his species,being low and rough, like those of the fusiforms of Leptogorgia ; butin general shape th(j spicules appear to agree with those of thespecies on which he forms the genus. In external appearance thespecies very closely resembles P. arhuscala, var. j^fMlda, but is palereven than that form ; the cortical spiculatiou of that form differsfrom that of our species in having the spicules more acutely tuberculate,i. e. with tlie tubercles longer in proportion to the diameter ofthe shaft and more pointed ; the spicules are also, as a ride, farsmaller aU over, the largest sizes given by Verrill for either thevariety or the typical form being "264 millim, length and '108 millim.breadth.GoRGONELLACEiE.18. Juncella juncea, Pallas.Gorgonia j uncea, Pallas, Elcnch. Zooph. p. 180 ; Esper, P/lanzenth.Fortsetz. ii. p. 26, pi. Iii.Juncella juncea, KiiUiker, Icon. Histiol. p. 140, pi. xviii. figs. 45, 46;? Valenciennes, Comptes Rendus, xli. p. 14 ; Y M.-Ed^o. 8f Haime,Hist. Cor. i. p. 186 ;Gray, Cat. Litlwph. p. 25 ; Studer, MB. Ak.Berlin, 1878, p. 659.A single fine specimen of typical characters. Neither Milne-Edwards and Haimc nor Valenciennes give details full enough toenable the student to identify their species satisfactorily with thatof Pallas and Esper. In the ' Alert ' s])ecimen and that figured byEsper ( referred to by M. -Edwards and Haime) the verruca) are closely