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Show 52 MISS ISA L. HILES O N GORGONACEAN [Jan. 17, and Klunzinger, in his ' Korallthiere des Eothen Meeres,' mentions it for Plexaura antipathes. The spicules of the cortex are small warty spindles and clubs, the spindles preponderating. They are colourless, and are -17 m m. in length by -07 mm. in breadth. There are also a few small irregular crosses. Hab. Funafuti Lagoon. Depth 6-7 fathoms. Family GORGONELLIDJE. VERRUCELLA GRANIFERA Kblliker. (Plate I. figs. 1, 2.) Syn. Verrucella flabellata Whitelegge. There are several fragments of this species. The largest is 170 mm. long; the stem is 1 mm. in diameter at the base, and remains about the same throughout. At a height of 70 m m . it gives off a branch, and 50 mm. farther another branch arises. The branches are about the same thickness as the stem. The whole is whip-like and very flexible. The verrucas are numerous, alternate, nearly at right angles to the axis, and about 2 mm. apart. They are *5 mm. high by 1 mm. wide at the base, and bluntly conical in shape. The axis is very hard and brittle; it shows a number of longitudinal grooves. The branches end in a small knob, with a laterally-placed polyp close to the apex. The spicules are double stars and spindles of the Gorgonellid type. The warts are compound, and arranged in rings, leaving a median zone free and smooth. The spindles are flat, and many of them have rounded ends. The double spindles are -073 mm. x -036 mm., -082 mm. x 018 mm.; the double stars are "036 mm. x "018 mm. The colour, in spirit, is pale fawn. These specimens seem to approach most closely to Verrucella granifera Kolliker (2), except that the spicules are only faintly tinged with yellow. V. flabellata Whitelegge (9) seems to resemble Kolliker's form, V. granifera, very closely, the only difference, apparently, being that some of the spicules have rounded ends; but others, as he figures (pi. xvii. fig. 33), have pointed ends, and resemble those of V. granifera. This seems a small difference on which to found a new species, especially when the character is not constant and found in all the spicules. In one of the pieces from Funafuti which I examined the spicules are decidedly longer and more pointed than in the other fragments, although in other respects they are similar. This may be due simply to a difference in locality. A slight variety of form and size in the spicules is of frequent occurrence in Gorgonacea, and must not be considered of specific value. Hab. Funafuti. Depth 40-71 fathoms. Previously recorded from the coast of Africa. This is another instance of the same species from two widely |
