REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. 197 



continued into the peduncle of the head, longitudinally arranged. Some of them are 

 very long and strong, and project beyond the laterally placed head. They are long 

 spindles, thickly covered with sharp spines ; sometimes straight and sometimes curved 

 into somewhat the shape of the letter _/! They measure TS by 0'08 mm.; 0"8 by 0'05 

 mm.; 2*5 by 0"19 mm. The largest spicules reach 3 mm. 



At the base of the polj'p head rise up, from amongst the thickly placed, spiny, 

 peripheral spindles, eight long spicules, which are longitudinally placed and whose apices 

 project beyond the mouth and the bases of the tentacles, forming eight rays around the 

 oral region. These are slender and straightly pointed at the free end, while their lower 

 quarter is bent at an angle, their length reaches 0'8 mm., the diameter 0'05 mm. The 

 remaining spicules of the head measure 0*7 by 0*06 mm. and less. 



The colour of the stem and branches is yellowish-white. The polyp heads, and, in 

 part, the entire lobules are flesh-coloured ; the spicules are red, or half red and half 

 colourless ; individual lobules are also white. 



In habit the species comes nearest to Spongodes studeri, Ridley. 



Habitat. — Tahiti ; depth, 30 to 70 fathoms. 



/3. Capitatas. — No specimen in the Challenger collection. 



y. Umhellatx. — The bundles of the polyps are always placed at the end of the twigs 

 on the finely ramified branches, which form an umbel. 



Spongodes spinosa, Gray. 



Spoggodes spinosa, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1862, p. 27, pi. iv. figs. 5-7 ; nee Spongodes 

 spinosa, Studer, Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, 1878, 

 p. 636. 



Gray characterises the species as follows : — " The coral whitish, forming roundish 

 spinose masses ; the stem thick, slightly branched, with very numerous short branchlets ; 

 the spicules white, very unequal, some large and thick ; the terminal branchlet furnished 

 on the inner upper edge, with curved (in spirits) partly retracted purple polypes, which are 

 surmounted and protected by the large opaque-white spicules of the branchlets." This 

 description is of such a general nature that it can be applied to a large number of 

 species, but it is sufficient to establish the difference from the only other species 

 described from this group. The figures {loc. cit, pi. iv. figs. 5-7) show a thick stem with 

 no basal portion. From this are given ofi" twigs, terminating in bundles of polyps. The 

 polyp heads are surmounted by great white spicules and also show red spicules placed 

 radially around the base of the head. 



