REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. 207 



Stalk, branches, and twigs are yellowish-white ; the polyps are red, the tentacles 

 yellowish-white. 



Habitat.— 8tsitioii 212, oflf Samboangan ; lat. 6° 54' N., long. 122° 18' E. ; depth, 10 

 fathoms; bottom, sand. 



Spongodes hicolor, n. sp. (PI. XXXVIc. figs, la, lb). 



The colony consists of an elongated, rather slender, barren trunk, continued above 

 into a broader stem-portion, from which latter larger and smaller branches come off, 

 ramifying and being covered at the ends with polyps. The branches are of various sizes, 

 so that the polyp-bearing head thereby acquires an irregularly lobose form. 



Height of the colony 120 mm.; greatest breadth of the head portion 7& mm.; 

 length of the barren trunk 60 mm.; diameter of the same 13 mm.; height of the head 

 portion 60 mm. ; length of a main branch 34 mm. The stalk arises from a flat expansion 

 as a cylindrical trunk, which in spirits appears to be strongly plicated, and has a rough, 

 granular surface. It is somewhat flabby and flexible. On passing into the head-portion 

 it increases in thickness, gives off larger and smaller branches at right angles, and radiates 

 at the apex into an umbel of divergent branches. 



The branches are sometimes cylindrical, but frequently, especially in the lower 

 division of the head, flattened, forming flat, projecting expansions rather than branches, 

 which surround a portion of the periphery of the stem. At the end they give oS", often 

 after further ramification, small, divergent twigs which bear bundles of sixteen to twenty 

 polyp heads. Each of these, together with its peduncle, is isolated for a short distance 

 and surmounted by a bundle of needles which projects for 2 or 3 mm. above the head. 

 The branches do not arise very close to one another, and the ramification is sufficiently 

 loose to show the main stem and the branches between. The polj'p heads are surrounded 

 by eight rows of spicules, each of which projects above the folded tentacles. 



The spicules of the barren trunk are thickly packed together in the outer covering, so 

 as to give it a tough consistency and a rough surface. Their shape and size vary very 

 much, scarcely any two spicules being alike. All, however, are provided with stout warts 

 and spines, which are often branched, by means of which their margins mutually 

 interlock. 



The principal forms are as follows : — Straight spindles with blunt ends and covered 

 all over with large warts directed towards the two ends; size, 079 to 0"8 by 0*12 to 

 0'2 mm. Curved, warty spindles, sometimes bow-shaped, sometimes geniculate, and 

 provided at the angle with rather sharp, often branched spines; size, 0"5 by 0"13 mm.; 

 0'4 by O'l mm. Simple clubs or spiny clubs with branched spines ; size, 07 by 0'17 mm.; 

 0"34 by 0"17 mm.; 0*5 by 0"13 mm. Straight spicules, sharpened at one end and 

 provided at the other with two or three diverging processes, covered on all sides with 



