5G SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



about hysterical conditions, with incessant cough, restlessness, pr in„ 

 nausea, etc. Alkaline solution was used locally, and morphine sulphate 

 hypodermically. 



New Chrysogorgids.* — W. Kukenthal describes five new species 

 and a new variety of Chrysogorgia, collected by the German Deep Sea 

 Expedition and by Dr. Doflein. The genus has an abyssal distribution 

 in the warmer parts of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. 



Sudanese Alcyonarians.f — J. Arthur Thomson and James M. 

 McQueen report on a collection of Alcyonarians made by Cyril 

 Grassland in the Sudanese Bed Sea. There are twenty-six species, of 

 which the following are new : Lithophgtani crosslandi, L. macrospicu- 

 latum, Spongodes sues/ana, S. pharonis, and Melitodes splendens. The 

 most interesting species, however, arc Clathraria rubrinodis Gray, and 

 C. acuta, striking forms which do not seem to have been noticed since 

 Gray described them in general terms many years ago. A provisional 

 list is given of the known Red Sea Alcyonarians. 



Revision of the Family Melitodidse.J — W. Kukenthal arranges 

 the genera of this Alcyonarian family in the following scheme : — 



I. Polyps with projecting calyces. 



A. Branching from the nodes, terminal twigs sometimes from 



the internodes. 

 i. Cortical spicules — spindles or spinose clubs. 



a. Nodes and internodes penetrated by endodermal 



longitudinal canals. Polyps predominantly on 

 one surface of the branches. 



1. Genus Melitodes Verrill. 



b. No endodermal canals in the internodes. Polyps 



distant and biserial. 



2. Genus Acabaria Gray. 

 ii. Cortical spicules — also foliate clubs. 



3. Genus Mopsella Gray. 



iii. The foliate clubs modified into rounded bodies. 



4. Genus Wrightella Gray. 



B. Branching from the internodes. 



5. Genus Parisis Verrill. 

 II. Polyps without projecting calyces. 



G. Genus Clathraria Gray. 



Kukenthal describes new species of Melitodes (4), Acabaria (7), 

 Mopsella (?>), Wrightella (1), and Clathraria (2). His diagnosis of 

 Clathraria does not seem to us to apply very satisfactorily to the two 

 species on which Gray established the genus. 



Variation in Plumularia.§ — S. Motz-Kossowska finds that Plumu- 

 laria lichtenstemi Mark. Turn, may give rise to forms which have been 

 referred to the genera A ntenella and Polypi umaria, and to species like 



* Zool. Anzeig., xxxiii. (1908) pp. 704-8. 



t Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) xxxi. (1908) pp. 48-75 (4 pis. and 4 figs.). 



1 Zool. Anzeig., xxxiii. (190S) pp. 189-201. 



§ Arch. Zool. Exper., ix. (1908) Notes et Revue, No. 3, -np. lv.-lix. (3 figs.). 



