172 CEYLON PEARL OYSTER REPORT. 



spindles, O'l millim. x 0"02 millim. ; (c) almost orbicular forms, - l millim. x (PI millim. ; 

 and (d) small spindles (0 - l millim. x (P03 millim.) on the aboral surface of the tentacles, 

 forming in retraction an opercular covering with eight points. 



This form closely approaches S. kollikeri, Weight and Studer, but there the 

 verrucee have a diameter of 2 millims. to 3 millims., the polyps are large and 

 prominent, the verructe have eight-rayed margins, and the colour is yellowish-brown. 

 But as the differences are hardly more than quantitative, we rank the Ceylonese 

 specimens simply as a variety of the " Challenger " species. 



Locality : Ceylon seas. 



Suberogorgia rubra, n. sp. Plate, fig. 4. 



Half-a-dozen fragments of a red colony, with a sclerogorgic very horny axis 

 (1'5 millims. in diameter), with a nutrient canal on each side, with thin friable 

 ccenenchyma, and with close-set, lateral, alternate verrucse, about 1 millim. in 

 diameter. The completely retractile polyps are white with a slight yellowish sheen, 

 and are supported by groups of small colourless spicules. It is difficult to make out 

 with certainty what the precise arrangement of these spicules is, but in two or three 

 cases eight triangular groups were seen on the polyp wall. In the fully retracted 

 state of the polyps the verruca appears as a rounded hillock beset with somewhat 

 blunt spindles. 



The spicules of the ccenenchyma are warty spindles of very varied dimensions. 

 The following measurements were taken in millimetres : {a) yellow spindles, 

 0-45 x 0-1, 0-3 x 0-1 ; (b) colourless spindles, 0-175 x (P07, (P2 x 0-08. 



The colour when first examined was a bright red, but it has since become paler and 

 shows a tint of orange. We note this change because it is unusual in Alcyonarians. 



The fragments in question most closely approach & kollikeri, Wright and Studer, 

 var. ceylonensis, n., but the polyps are much more crowded and decidedly smaller, 

 and both colour and spiculation are different. One of the fragments bore a very 

 minute pearl oyster. 



Locality : Ceylon seas. 



Family: PRIMNOID^. 



Caligorgia versluysi, n. sp. Plate, figs. 6 and 15. 



The beautiful form which we recorded (Part III., p. 289) as Primnoa ellisii, von 

 Koch, appeared to us to agree with the description given by yon Koch, and so up to 

 a certain point it does. But Dr. J. Versluys has been good enough to point out to 

 me that yon Koch's description is not sufficiently minute to enable one to 

 discriminate between Primnoa (or better Caligorgia) ellisii and other species which 

 have since been defined off. Dr. Versluys was kind enough to examine the 



