REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. XXXi 



Family I. Briareid^. 



Briareacea, Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. des Coralliaires, t. i. p. 188. 

 Paragorgiacex, Kolliker, Verhand. phys.-nied. Gesch. Wiirzburg, Bd. ii. p. 11. 



Scleraxonia in which the ccenenchyma consists of a polyp-bearing cortex and a medul- 

 lary substance of closely packed spicules ; these are either developed on the surfaces 

 of an upright shrubby-colony, or the latter is relegated to the interior of a cylindrical 

 stem over which is spread the former. In the latter case a more or less well-defined axis 

 is formed which may be penetrated by nutritive canals, or may be quite without them. 

 The Briareidfe thus fall into two subdivisions, Briareinse and Spongiodermin^e. 



Subfamily 1. Briarein^. 

 Central mass with nutritive canals. 



1. Leucoella, Gray. 



2. Solenocaulon, Gray. 



3. Semperina, Kolliker. 



4. Suheria, Studer. 



5. Anthothela, Verrill. 



6. Paragorgia, Milne-Edwards. 



Briareum, Blainville. 



Subfamily 2. Spongiodermin^. 



Central mass without nutritive canals. 



8. Titanideum, Agassiz. | 9. Iciligorgia, Ridley. 



10. Spongioderma, Kolliker. 



Subfamily 1. BRiAREiNiE. 



1. Leucoella, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. v. p. 405; Ridley, Rep. 



Zool. Coll. H.M.S. "Alert," Alcyonaria, p. 355. 



The most primitive form of this subfamily is probably that of Leucoella, Gray. But 

 of this unfortunately we have only a very incomplete description, so that the relations 

 of the nutritive canals are not clearly known. According to Gray's diagnosis this genus 

 must be very nearly allied to Solenocaulon. 



2. Solenocaulon, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1862, p. 34, pi. xxxvi. fig. 1; Gray, 



Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, ser. 3, 1862, p. 147. 



Solenogorgia, Genth, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., Bd. xvii. p. 429, 1867. 



Solenocaulon, Studer, Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, October 1875, p. 668. 



In Solenocaulon the colony consists of an upright, often laterally flattened stem 

 portion, which bears polyps chiefly on its margins and on one face. The polyp tentacles, 



