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

;ALCYONABIA. 353•4 by •! rnillim., or else longer and pro]wrtioualIy more slender, withmore distant and simple tubercles, -4 ))y "OS millim. Those (ii.) ofthe denser axial substance are shoit, very boldly tuberculate forms,very irregularly modified from the fusiform types, but with thetubercles somewhat scattered ; size •J4 by -042 to "IS by '07 millim.intermixed with these are some of the stouter and longer formswhich compose the outer layer. The spicules are either devoid ofany colour or very faintly yellow.Hah. Arafura ISca. off N.W. coast of Australia, 32-36 fms.bottom—sand, mud, and shell.Ohs. The only differences which distinguish these specimens fromKlunzinger s are the pale brown instead of red colour of the corallumas a whole, its unbranched condition, and the want of a decidedcoloration of the spicules themselves.A specimen of this species also occurs, in an exclusively repentform, upon an elongated sponge in the dry state ;it extends 120millim. (5 inches) horizontally, exclusive of branches. It exactlyresembles the horizontal parts of the specimen just described, butsends up no vertical axes, and might thus have been taken for aCallipodium had the radiate spicules assigned to this type by KoUikerand Verrill been present. This resemblance of the young stage ofa typical liriareacean to that genus perhaps supports Kolliker's viewsas t« the genus properly finding its place among the Briareaceae.SOLENOCAULUM.Solenocaulon, Gray, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 34, figs. p. 36H. (3) X. p. 147 (1862).; Ann. ^ Mag. N.? Ccelogorgia, M.-Eclwards and Haime, Hist. Corall. i. p. 191 (1857).Solenogorgia, Genth, Zeitsch. loiss. Zool. xvii. p. 429 (1867).30. Solenocaulum tortuosum.Solenocaulon tortuosum, Gray, II. cc.A single (dry) specimen of this very remarkable form came upwith the tangles from a dredging of from 12 to 20 fms. off PortMolle, Queensland ; it is about 5 inches long, or rather less thanhalf the length of the type specimen. It is of a pale orange colour,in which, as in its other external as well as in its microscopic characters,it agrees with the original type of the species. The stemis solid, as is that of a spirit-specimen already in the collection, andas (so far as I have been able to ascertain with safety) that of thetype specimen, and affords another point of agreement between thisgenus and Solenocjorgia of Genth, and adds one more reason to thosegiven by Studer (MB. Ak. Berlin, 1878, p. 669) for uniting thetwo genera under the older name conferred by Gray, a proceedingwhich is obviously necessary.Another specimen, from the Arafura Sea, fortunately preservedin spirit and practically complete, although two apical portionsare detached, differs somewhat from the typical form. It has astem 55 millim. long, of which the lower end, to the length of about