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

348 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA.Cortical spicules :—(i.) Clubs almost cxactl)^ as iu Jancella gemmacea,M.-Edwards and Haime (sec Kiilliker, Icon. Histiol. p. 122,woodcut 10, 1); length -087 millim. (ii.) Double stars, with shortmedian bare shaft, and swollen but rather unequal heads, coveredwith three or four series of moderately sharp tubercles, closely aggregated; length of spicule "087 millim.Hub. Port Denison, Queensland, 4 fms. ; bottom rock.Ohs. The two dry specimens which represent this species have,unfortunately, neither of them retained their original base, but thelarger one was broken off at a point probably not far above it. Thelength of the specimens respectively is 18| inches (330 millim.) and8 1 inches (170 millim.). They are more or less bent irregularlyand are very flexible.In its small crowded verruca), iu the absence of lateral lines, inits pale colour, and in the abundant tuberculation of the heads ofthe double-stellate spicule this species differs from J. gemmacea, M.-Edw. and Haime, which seems to be the nearest described species.ELLISELLA.EUisella, Grmf, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 287 ;Stiider, MB. Ak. Berlin,1878, p. 059.Juncella (pars), Kolliher, Icoti. Ilistiol. p. 140;(pars) Khoizinyer,Kur. rotli. Mcer. p. 55.Verrucella (pars), Kolliker, I. c.Studer, I. c. p. 660, pi. v. fig. 28.22. EUisella calamus.A specimen 9 inches (225 miUim.) long in its present imperfectcondition aj)pears to represent this species ; but the fusiform spiculesare from -07 to '1 millim. long, and the colour is dark brick-red.Studer gives '06 as the length of these spicules, and does not mentionthe colour. His specimens were from N.W. Australia.Hah. Port Denison, (Queensland, 4 fms.23. Ctenocella pectinata.Gorgonia pectinata, Pallas, Elench. Zooph. p. 179.A fine and extremely weU-preserved specimen of unusual symmetry; it has the form of the conventional lyre, being V-shaped,with the upper lateral branches curved inwards. Colour palesalmon.The front and back faces of the two main (outer) branches are bareof polyps for from one third to half their length from their origin ;the verrucic are but slightly prominent on the outer branches ;the