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



spicules of the ccenenchyma are four-rayed stars, and curved, broad spindles with spiny 

 prominences, flattened, douljly pointed, curved, and giving off longish spines from the 

 convex side ; these measure, length by breadth, 0"21— 0'08 ; 0'12-0"1 ; O'lO— 0'06 mm. 



The polyps are closely armed with broad spiny discoid spicules, generally triangular 

 in form, with simple or branched lateral prominences. Length by breadth 0"15— 0*05 ; 

 0'12— O'l ; 0'13— 012 ; 0"19— 0"15 mm. Of the eight-rayed opercular covering, which 

 closes in the calyx and corresponds to the basal portions of the tentacles, each ray 

 consists of a base formed by a curved, spiny, and horizontally placed spicule of 

 0'15 mm. in length ; upon this are placed two broad spicules, converging upwards, of 

 0"2 mm. in length ; between these there is a fourth spicule laid down ; if the lateral 

 spicules are very broad, then this intermediate one is but short and thin ; if otherwise 

 it may extend to the tip of the opercular region. The axis is horny, flexible, elastic, 

 longitudinally striate, in the thicker portions of a dark brown ; in the thinner of a light- 

 yellow colour. The colour of the colony in spirits is brownish. 



Habitat. — Station 176, between the Fiji Islands and the New Hebrides ; depth, 

 145 fathoms; bottom, Globigerina ooze. 



Genus 7. Echinomuricea, Verrill. 



Echinomurirea, Verrill, Proc. Essex Inst., vol. vi. p. 45; Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, vol. xlvii. p. 285, 1869. 



Verrill, in 1869 {loc. cit.), established this genus for a Gorgonid from the Chinese 

 Sea, which had already been briefly described by Stimpson, in 1855, as Nephthya 

 coccinea. According to Verrill, the chief characteristic of this genus rests in the 

 verrucas being surrounded, at their base, by numerous very long, stout, thorny, and 

 branched, spine-Hke, spicules, which are crowded and somewhat imbricated, not placed in 

 whorls. 



The then only known species was Echinomuricea coccinea (Stimpson). A second 

 species, EcJiinomuricea indomalaccensis, has been added by Ridley.' Ridley gives a 

 very exact description of his new species. Without further emending the diagnosis of 

 the genus, he suggests that Acanthogorgia grayi, Johns., and Acanthogorgia atlantica, 

 Johns., may be included in this genus, Ijut this is not so, as Verrill has shown under 

 Paramuricea that both these species belong to this latter genus. 



Echinomuricea indomalaccensis, Ridley (PI. XXIII. fig. 4 ; PI. XXVII. fig. 3). 



Echinomuricea indomalaccensis, Ridley, Zool. Coll. H.M.S. "Alert," 1881-1882, 1884, p. 336, 



pi. xxxvi. figs. B-B' ; pi. xxxviii. figs. d-d'. 



The single specimen of this species in the Challenger collection agrees very well 

 with the description of Ridley; the colony consists of an upright stem, branched in 



1 Zool. Coll. H.M.S. "Alert," 1884, p. 336. 



