REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. 



XIX 



In Paralcyonium the polyp colony consists of a stem portion with more or less 

 firm walls, and a softer head-like portion giving off small twigs, from which the polyp 

 mouths are seen projecting. The softer portion can be retracted along with the polyps 

 into the firmer substance of the stem. The hardening of the stem portion and the 

 feeble branching of the polyp-bearing portions bring this genus close to Bellonella or 

 Nidalia. 



In Alcyonium the whole colony forms an upright lobed mass, on which a short stem 

 portion may be distinguished. Lohidaria can hardly be separated from Alcyonium, and 

 Klunzinger has included it in the same genus. Yet one may with Ehrenberg distinguish 

 as Lohularia forms those Alcyonids in which the short broad stem is furnished with 

 a number of lobes and lappets, and in which the coenenchyma is very thickly beset with 

 short calcareous spicules, especially double-clubs, ordinary clubs and spindles, so that it 

 acquires quite a thick leathery consistence. 



In Sarcophytum we find folded or lobed polyp stocks, with dimorphic polyps 

 (autozooids and siphonozooids). Marenzeller divides Lesson's genus into Sarco2:>hyttim, 

 with mushroom-like colonies, and Lobophytum, with the upper surface not mushroom-like, 

 but with thick and elongated lappets, or finger-shaped processes. 



In Anthomastus the colony forms a roundish mass, which is seated on a short, 

 thick, sterile stem ; a few very large polyps are completely retractile into eight-rayed 

 calyces; numerous small siphonozooids occur scattered between the polyps; the 

 coenenchyma is abundant, firm, and provided with fine spicules. It seems probable 

 that Sarcophytum purpureum, Koren and Danielssen, should be referred to this 



genus. 



1. Crystallophanes, Danielssen. 



2. Bellonella, Gray. 



3. Nidalia, Gray. 



4. Paralcyonium, Milne-Edwards. 



5. Sarakka, Danielssen. 



6. Alcyonium, Linneus. 



7. Lohularia, Savigny. 



8. Sarcophytum, Lesson, emend. Maren- 



zeller. 



9. Lobophytum, Marenzeller. 



10. Anthomastus, Verrill. 



11. Nannodendron, Danielssen. 



1. Crystallophanes, Danielssen, 

 Alcyonida, 1887, p. 129. 



Norske Nordhavs-Exped., 1876-1878; Zool. 



The colony has a soft stem which is dilated at the base and adherent to dead shells, 

 the branches are short, thick, broad at their origin and somewhat dilated at their 

 extremities, where they bear six to eight polyps. The branches are short and in spires 

 leaving bare intervals ; coenenchyma dense. Polyps retractile. 



