96 



coralla. After the full account given of F. riibrum, only a few 

 notes are required on those subsequently examined, although 

 several have been investigated almost as carefully as that species. 

 The uniformity in the minute anatomy of the different forms is 

 surprismg, the only new point developed being in connection 

 with the endodermal nematocysts of the tops and sides of the 

 septa, which have been shown to be of wide distribution in the 

 different species (pp. 122-127). 



II. SYSTEMATIC LIST. 



Genus DESMOPHYLLUM. 

 Desmophyllum, Ed. and H., Cor. II., p. 76 (1857). 



I. DESMOPHYLLUM CAPENSE, n. sp. 



There are five specimens, with eight separate corallites of a 

 gigantic species, which is very closely related to D. ingens. 

 Moseley (Challenger Reports, Vol. II., p. 161, 1881). It differs 

 from that species in that (a) the tops of its corallites are always 

 straight, never expanded, nor trumpet-shaped ; {b) in the largest 

 specimens there are six cyles of septa, instead of five, and {c) 

 there is no columella, though the septal edges may be thickened 

 and fused together for i cm. or so above the base of the axial 

 fossa. 



Beyond the above, the species requires no description, in its 

 other characters generally agreeing with D. ingens, from which, 

 nevertheless, it appears to be a distinct species. Three of the 

 larger corallites are respectively 45x25 mm., 40x26 mm., and 

 41 X ig mm. across their upper ends, and have 162, 144, and 152 

 septa, of which 24, themselves divided into two series, are con- 

 siderably broader, thicker, and more exsert (5 mm.) than the 

 rest. The corallites vary up to 12 cm. in length, and are through- 

 out rather flattened. The edge-zone of the polyps extends 

 down the outer sides of the corallites for a varying distance, in 

 the specimens up to 5 cm. ; and this part is ridged with rather 

 irregular bluntly lobate. or ridge -like costae, decreasing in size 

 from the calicular openings. Below the edge-zone there is no 

 trace of any epitheca, the surface of the corallites being simply 

 covered by incrusting organisms or bare. Two, three, or more 



