REPORT ON CORALS — DEEP-SEA MADREPORARIA. 181 



Length of each caliele, 4 mm. Diameter of the mouths of the calicles, 2\ mm. 

 Station 210, between Panglao and Siquijor Islands, Philippine Islands. 375 fathoms. 



Solenosmilia. 



Solenosmilia variabilis, Duncan, Madreporaria of the Deep Sea, part i. p. 328, pi. xiii. 

 figs. 11-1S. (PI. IX. figs. 1-5). 



Lophohella tubalusa, Studer, Monatsbt. cler K. P. Akad. der "VViss., 1878, s. G31, taf. i. fig. 8, a-c. 



I give a series of figures of this species because it is a very widely-spread and 

 characteristic deep-sea form, and varies exceedingly. Many specimens dredged by us 

 were dead, old, and much broken, but always recognisable by the peculiar mode of 

 branching and the texture of the ccenenchym. The peculiar mode in which the young 

 terminal calicles communicate with one another whilst fission is proceeding, as described 

 by Professor Duncan, is shown in figure 3. Since the plate was prepared Pourtales has 

 published very good drawings of the same subject. 1 Professor Studer has shown that 

 a somewhat similar condition exists in Lophohella. 2 



In some of his specimens Professor Duncan observed the presence of a peculiar dark 

 green pigment. It would be of great interest to submit this colouring matter to spec- 

 troscopic examination. In none of the Challenger specimens was this coloration 

 observed, but this may be due to the fact that they were placed at once either in strong 

 alkaline solutions or in spirit. Nearly all of them have a peculiar light brown colour ; 

 and some were entirely coated with a thin layer of the peroxide of manganese so abun- 

 dant in the deep sea, just as was the dead Corallium obtained by us in very large 

 quantities off the Canary Islands. 3 In the Natural History Museum at the Jardin des 

 Plantes is a similar specimen of Corallium rubrum, coated with a black substance, 

 evidently manganese. It is from the Mediterranean, and labelled " Corail norici dans 

 la vase," " Corail mort des pecheurs." 



Studer's Lophohella tubulosa is evidently not distinct from the present species. 



Station 135, off Tristan da Cunha. 1000 fathoms. 



Station 145, off the Prince Edward Islands, South Indian Ocean. 310 fathoms. 



Station 344, off Ascension Island. 420 fathoms. 



Abundance of the coral was obtained at all the above localities. 



1 Pom-lalt's, Bull. Mus. Corny. Zool., Harvard, vol. v. No. 9, Corals, pi. i. figs. 1-3. 



2 Monatsbericht der K. Preuss. Akad. der Wfes., Nov. 1877, s. 632. 



3 Sir C. Wyville Thomson, The Atlantic, London, 1877, vol. i. p. 173. 



