REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. XXV 



9. Ammothea, Savigny, Polyp. Egjrpte, t. ii. fig. 6 ; Lamarck, Hist. Nat. Anim. sans 

 Vert., t. ii. p. 410, ed. 2, p. 628 ; Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. des Coralliaires, 

 t. i. p. 123 ; Klunzinger, Korall. des rothen Meeres, pt. i. p. 30. 



The upright colony is branched like a tree, or gives off a number of uniform, 

 cylindrical, finger-like branches from a flat base. The branches bear polyps which are 

 not retractile, and like the stem and branches are beset by small spiny clubs and 

 spindles. As the points of the spicules do not project beyond the surface the latter 

 appears smooth. Danielssen (Alcyonida, 1887, p. 81) points out the fact that Leech 

 used the name Ammothea, in 1814, for a Crustacean, which Lamarck overlooked when 

 in 1816 he used it for an Alcyonarian. Danielssen further suggests that as the two 

 genera Ammothea and Nephthya, Savigny, can scarcely be retained as distinct, the latter 

 name should be adopted for the group. 



10. Nephthya, Savigny, Atlas du grand ouvrage sur I'Egypte, Hist. Nat., t. ii. pi. ii. ; 



Ehrenberg, Corall. des rothen Meeres, p. 60 ; Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. 

 des Coralliaires, t. i. p. 127; Klunzinger, Korall. des rothen Meeres, pt. i. 

 p. 33. 



A genus very like the last, but with the heads of the polyps beset with tolerably 

 large and long calcareous spindles. These are closely apposed, and give the head a rigid 

 consistence. Both stem and branches are firm and leathery owing to the calcareous 

 spicules in the cortex. 



11. Spoggodes, Lesson, Illustrations de Zoologie, 1834. Spongodes, Verrill. emend. 



Spoggodia, Dana, Zoophytes, p. 625. 



Spoggodes, Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. des Coralliaires, t. i. p. 128. 



Spongodes, Verrill, Proc. Essex Inst., vol. vi. p. 45, 1869. 



Spoggodes, Spoggodia, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1862, p. 27. 



Morchellana, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1862, p. 30. 



Spongodes, Klunzinger, Korall. des rothen Meeres, pt. L p. 34, 1877. 



Spongodes, Ridley, Rep. Zool. Coll. H.M.S. "Alert," p. 333. 



The form of the colony varies greatly according to the extent of the sterile trunk. 

 The polyps are non-retractile. Their heads, which contain large spicules and have a firm 

 consistence, are over-arched by tufts of large spindle-shaped spicules projecting as 

 spines beyond the polyps. The internal septa are not furnished with spicules, while the 

 cortex of the stem and of the branches contains large spicules, giving to these a firm 

 consistence. 



