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Show 814 MR. J. Y. JOHNSON O N T H E [June 20, been necessarily imposed on the tropical form. Furthermore, another of Gray's species (Antipathes setacea) has been removed from the position it occupied of a queried synonym and is re-established as distinct by a more detailed description. Two of the eight species here dealt with (Savaglia lamarcki and Leiopathes glabernma) are known in the Mediterranean, which great sea possesses apparently a smaller number of species than the sea immediately surrounding the diminutive island of Madeira, for it seems that not more than six forms can with certainty be attributed to the former. These are (in addition to the two already mentioned as common to the two seas) Antipathes dichotoma Pall., A. mediterranea Brook, Anti-pathella subpinnata (E. & S.), and Parantipathes larix (Esper). The existence in the Mediterranean of any elongate unbranched form like Cirripathes requires confirmation. Gen. SAVAGLIA Nardo, 1843. Corallum horny, without spines; polyps with 24 tentacles in alternate rows of twelve each. SAVAGLIA LAMARCKI (Haime). Savaglia lamarcki, Brook, Antipatharia of the ' Challenger,' p. 79. Gerardia lamarcki, Lacaze-Duthiers, 1864. Leiopathes lamarcki, Haime, 1849. Moderately branched, furcately, in one plane. Axis black or brown ; trunk and branches very sinuous, not cylindrical, but compressed laterally so that tbe anterior and posterior faces are narrower than the intervening sides and the angles are rounded off. There is no groove on any of the faces or sides. The surface of the stem and main branches is seen under the lens to be minutely wrinkled and finely punctured, the punctures being numerous and irregularly scattered. The branches are elongate and tapering, very seldom fusing together. Only two specimens of this species have come under m y observation. Neither has a base. The smaller example has a height of 70 centim. (27g in.) and a spread of 45. It has been entirely stripped of its polyps. The other is 85 centim. (32^ in.) high, and the longer axis of the lower part of the stem measures 15 millim. It has lost most of its branches; there are remains of the coenosarc and polyps on the highest ones ; their oval mouths, with thickened lips marked by radiating grooves, are large and conspicuous, the longer axis measuring 4 millim. There is some doubt as to the true zoological position of this organism. The horny branched axis has all the appearance of being antipatharian, but the polyps with their 24 tentacles are closely allied to the Zoanthida^, especially to the genus Parazoanthus Haddon & Shackleton. Carlgren therefore has advocated the removal of Gerardia lamarcki from the Antipatharia to the Zoanthida? |
