REPORT ON THE ANTIPATHARIA. 97 



I am at a loss to know where to place this species. Pourtales first states that the 

 polyps are of the Antipathes dissecta type (and in a later paper announces that the 

 specimens which he had regarded as Antipathes dissecta really belonged to Antipathes 

 gldberrima, Esper), which is distinctly rounded and radiate externally, and then goes on 

 to call attention to the fact that the polyps are more elongate than in Antipathes humilis, 

 which has the tentacles arranged in an oval. 



On account of the fragmentary character of the specimens obtained it is difficult to 

 suggest a relation to other species, but the delicacy of the pinnules and irregularity of 

 branching would seem to indicate a relationship to Leiopathes gldberrima (Esper). The 

 spines of the two species are of a similar type. In the figure given by Pourtales the spines 

 are represented as small, distant, and somewhat triangular, arranged in lax, irregular, sinis- 

 trorse spirals. Three or four longitudinal rows are visible from one aspect, the members 

 of a row being about three lengths apart. 



It should, however, be noted that in the original description, published in 1871, the 

 spines are stated to be somewhat longer and straighter than those of either Par antipathes 

 Jarix or Antipathella subpinnata, as figured by Lacaze Duthiers, but in the figure given in 

 his latest paper (1880) they are represented as very short, with the characters given 

 above. 



The polyps have a general resemblance to those of Leiopathes glaberrima, but the 

 mouth opens on a large, circular oral disc similar to that of [Antipathes'] picea, 

 Pourt. 



Habitat. — Off Carysfoot Eeef, in 35 fathoms ; off Tortugas, in 37 fathoms ; off 

 Barbadoes, in 100 fathoms. 



Genus Antipathes. Pallas (emend.). 



Antipathes (pars), Pallas, Elenohus Zoophytorurn, p. 205; Milne-Edwards, &c, &c. 



Corallum shrub-like, without confluence of branches. Polyps large, rounded or 

 slightly oval; tentacles radiating, those in the sagittal axis springing from near the middle 

 of the polyp, the other two pairs from the margin of the peristome. The tentacles are 

 relatively long and thick, those limiting the sagittal axis being longer than the others. 

 There are ten mesenteries in the oral cone and six below. The reproductive organs are 

 contained in a specialised band of tissue attached to the stomodseum and body- wall. The 

 ectoderm, particularly that of the tentacles, is papillose, each papilla being filled in its 

 central portion with a bundle of nematocysts. 



I have taken Antipathes dichotoma, Pallas, as the type of this genus, it being the only 

 species described by Pallas of which I have been able to study the structure of the 

 polyps. 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. — PAET LXXX. — 1889.) Llll 13 



