92 



a trawl, but we have no written information at present about 

 the degree of expansion and contraction that the rachis of 

 Cavernularia can exhibit. Judging alone from the structure 

 of the sarcosoma, it is very proloable that the rachis is in the 

 living specimens in their normal habitat very much larger 

 than in the best spirit specimens. It may be, then, that the 

 greater length of the rachis in Specimen A may partly be due 

 to its having been killed in a somewhat less contracted con- 

 dition than Specimen B. It may also be partly due to 

 Specimen A being a larger and therefore an older specimen, 

 the rachis becoming proportionately longer in older speci- 

 mens as in many other Pennatulids. 



My conclusion, therefore, is that these specimens are 

 probably examples of the same species, and that they should 

 be identified with Cavernularia elegans (Herklots). 



Specimen B was a female with ova 0.5 mm. in diameter. 

 It was obtained on November 20th. 1897. 



Cavernularia obesa (Val.) (Variety). 

 Plate III., A and B. 



Eight specimens out of fifteen obtained on November 19th, 

 jSgS, near Port Alfred, lat. 33° 44' 20" S., long. 26° 

 44' 20" E., depth 40-43 fathoms, Avere sent to me. 



I consider them to be varieties of the very variable and 

 widely-distributed species Cavernularia obesa (Val). 



Two of the specimens are white, four have a purple rachis 

 with a yellow stalk, one is yellowy and one very small one has 

 a pink rachis and pale yellow stalk. 



The largest one is purple, 58 mm. in total length and about 

 6 mm. in greatest diameter, the stalk being 16 mm. in length. 

 Other specimens are 40 mm., 38 mm., 26 mm., in length. 



The polyps, which in some of the specimens are beautifully 

 expanded, are colourless, bearing no spicules. There is no 

 axis. Two specimens were dissected, one of them, purple in 

 colour, was male, the other yellow and female. 



These very interesting and important little Pennatulids 

 are worthy of further investigation. They appear to be dwarf 

 varieties of a species which has a wide distribution in the 

 Indian and Malay seas. The only specimen which at all 

 resembles them that I have seen is one in the British Museum 



