REPORT ON THE ALCYONARIA. 259 



Genus Telesto, Lamouroux. 



Telesto, Lamouroux, Nouveau Bull. Soc. Pbilom. Paris, 1812; Hist. d. Polyp, flexibles, p. 252, 1816. 

 „ Dana, Zoophytes, p. 632, 1846. 



Verrill, Mem. Best. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 5, 1866. 

 Carijoa, F. Miiller, Arch. f. Naturgesch., Jahrg. xxxiii. Bd. i. p. 330 Anm., pi. ix. fig. 56, 1867. 

 Teleseo and AlejreUa, Gray, Ann, and I^Iag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4. vol. iii. p. 21, 1869. 

 Clavularia, v. Koch, Morph. Jahrb., Bd. vii. p. 467, 1881. 



The original diagnosis of Lamouroux is — " Polypier phytoide, rameux, fistuleux, 

 cretaceo-membraneux, opaque, stri^ longitudinalement." He includes within the genus 

 three species — Telesto lutea, Telesto aurantiaca, Telesto pelasgica. Dana added another 

 species, Telesto fruticulosa, also from the American coast. As the result of Verrill's inves- 

 tigation of Dana's species, the generic diagnosis was emended as follows : — " Corallum 

 tubular, arborescent, increasing by lateral buds from upright branches and sometimes also 

 by basal stolons ; walls thin, firm, membranous or like parchment, with eight longitudinal 

 sulcations. Polyps wholly retractile, separated at the base from the cavity of the branch 

 by a thin membrane." Gray, who changed Telesto into Teleseo, described [loc. cit.) a new 

 species, Telesto smithii, which diverged in its mode of growth from the typical forms, so 

 that Gray felt himself thereby at once warranted in distinguishing three subgenera — (1) 

 Teleseo, for Telesto aurantiaca, Lamx., and Telesto ramulosa, Verrill ; (2) Telescella, for 

 Telesto nodosa, Verrill, which Verrill's own subsequent investigation showed to be an 

 Annelid-tube ; (3) Alexella, for Telesto smithii. Other species which must be referred to 

 this genus have been described under manifold names by various authors. Thus Dana 

 described a species as Gorgorda trichostemma ; Fritz Miiller, another from the Brazilian 

 coast as Carijoa rapicola; Duchassaing and Michelotti, another form from the West 

 Indies as Clavularia riissei. Koch gave an excellent detailed investigation of an East 

 Indian form, which he called Clavularia prolifera, v. Koch. 



In reviewing the various species belonging to this genus, it is possible to distinguish 

 two main groups. In the first, to which the typical Telesto aurantiaca would belong, 

 the structure of the polyps and the sparse ramification of the colony remind one of 

 Clavularia. This may be regarded as a subgenus in contrast to those species in which 

 the lateral calyces have a different shape from those of the main polyps, and the entire 

 colony forms a large ramified mass. Telesto rupicola, Telesto smithii, Telesto prolifera 

 may be regarded as types of another subgenus. For this latter F. Miiller's designation 

 Carijoa may be adopted, since this was first applied to a species of this subgenus. 

 Gray's Alexella was of later date. 



The characters of the genus may be given as follows : — 



From a membranous base, or from stolons which form a delicate network, the 

 individual polyps arise. In structure they are like those of Clavularia. From the 



