88 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



The type in the British Museum (Reg. No. 82.7.31.4) is from Ceylon, and is quite 

 devoid of polyps, so that I cannot say with certainty whether it belongs to the genus 

 Cirripathes, as modified in the present Memoir, or to the new genus Stichopathes. The 

 specimen is 30 cm. long, not following the spirals, and about 1"5 mm. in diameter at the 

 base, in outward appearance only differing from the Ceylon specimen of Cirripathes 

 spiralis (Brit. Mus. Reg. No. 82.7.13.2), in being shorter and more slender from the base 

 upwards. The spines, however, show the following arrangement. A number of stout 

 cylindrical spines with a blunt apex are arranged probably in a dextrorse spiral ; these are 

 subequal in length, and arranged also in longitudinal rows, about twelve of which may 

 be seen from one aspect. The members of a row are about two and a half lengths 

 apart. The interval between the large spines is not smooth, as in Cirripathes spiralis, 

 but is filled in by a large number of very short triangular spines projecting little beyond 

 the general surface of the sclerenchyma, but each with a sharp point. 



Habitat.— OS Galle, Ceylon (Ondaatje), Brit. Mus. 



Genus Stichopathes, n. gen. 



Cirrkipathes (pars), Auctt. 

 Antipathes (pars), Pourtales, Gray, &c. 



Sclerobasic axis forming a long, flexible, sometimes spirally curved rod, simple, and 

 without branches of any kind. 



Polyps well developed, situated on one side of the stem only, and having six very long 

 digitiform tentacles. The polyps are sometimes alternately large and small, in which 

 case the smaller ones are hidden by the long tentacles of the larger polyps. " The 

 ccenosarc on the back of the branch (stem) shows transverse canals more transparent than 

 the rest, in the space between successive polyps" (Pourtales, 71, p. 114). The histo- 

 logical structure of the species to which Pourtales here refers, Stichopathes pourtalesi, 

 n. sp., is not known, but his observation would seem to show that this species forms 

 a link between the genus Cirripathes and other Antipathinpe. I have been induced to 

 form this new genus in consequence of what Pourtales says about his Cirrhipathes spiralis 

 (Pourt. non Pall.), and in order to distinguish those unbranched forms of Antipathinse 

 having the polyps on one side of the axis only, from those which, as in the genus 

 Cirri'pathes, have them distributed spirally all around the stem. I am unable to give any 

 further information on the structure of the polyps in question, as this genus is not repre- 

 sented in the Challenger Collection, and the only species in the British Museum which 

 I could with certainty refer to it, are not preserved in spirit, so that the polyps are not 

 available for study. 



