174 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



0'l-0-8 ; 0-1-0-6 ; 0-12-0-1 mm. The warty spindles 0-26-0-12 ; 0-22-0-1 ; 0-12-0-1 

 mm. The bent spinose spicules 0-3-0-I; 0-28-0-06; 0-2-0-1; 0-26-0-1; 0-18-0-1 mm. 

 The double stars O-l-O'l ; 0-08-0-04 ; 0-01-0-06 mm. The four -rayed forms O-lS-O'lG ; 

 O'14-O'l mm. The simple spindles 0'34-0"8 ; 0"36-0"2 mm. The irregular branching 

 spicules are about 0'3 mm. in length, with a width varying from 0'1-0'15 mm. The 

 small polyp spicules 0"12-0'4 ; "06-0 '02 mm. 



Colour.— What we take to be the type form is of a bright brick -red. The internodes 

 when bare are of a bright pink, while the nodes are of a brown colour. 



In the same collection, in several cases growing side by side, and in one instance 

 anastomosing with the form above described, there occur a yellow-coloured variety and 

 one with a slightly pink hue. Nothing in the external form or structure, except that in 

 the yellow variety the anastomoses are more frequent and the polyps perhaps more 

 crowded, would call for special observation, but the spicules differ somewhat in form. 

 In Var. A. the Stachelkeule almost assume the form of Blattkeule, the spiny spindles 

 are often quite blunt at both ends, and the half-sided spiny spindles ^are large, often with 

 quasi folia at the tips. In Var. B. the Stachelkeule are well developed, and there 

 are present, chiefly in the inner layer of the ccenenchyma, a large number of the 

 irregularly branching spindles. 



Hahitat. — Torres Strait. 



Melitodes rugosa, n. sp. (PI. XL. fig. 6). ' 



The colony is branched, about 80 mm. in height and 60 mm. in the widest stretch 

 of the branches ; the branches are not all in the one plane and there is no apparent 

 anastomosis. The base is attached to a small "frond" of a Flustra by a disc-like plate, 

 which is bifid, embracing the edge of the frond between the two folds ; it is 3 mm. in 

 its widest diameter. The main axis at a height of 17 mm. branches, the first branch 

 proceeding from an internode. The first internode is 25 mm., the second is 11 mm. in 

 length. The stem at its base is 1*25 mm. in diameter. The internodes are long, some- 

 times irregular in form, wavy in outline, and of a pink colour when stript. The nodes 

 are triangular in shape, 2 "5 mm. at base and the same in height. 



The polyps are scattered irregularly over the stem and its branches. They are 

 retractile, within verrucse, but these are not prominent, though sufficiently so to give 

 an undulating appearance to the branches ; they are about 1 mm. in diameter at 

 tlifpir bases. 



The ccenenchyma is somewhat dense and the spiny spindles projecting in part from 

 its surface gives this a roughened rugose appearance. Some of the Stachelkeule approach 

 in form very nearly to Blattkeule. 



The colour in spirit is a greyish-white with a few specks of yellow, owing to the 



