14 



THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



dried, but this is the case with the animals of all the Gorgoniadse I have examined 

 under similar conditions. The pinnae appear to be permanently withdrawn under such 

 circumstances." 



The first volume of Milne-Edwards' Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires (41), contain- 

 ing an account of the Antipatharia, appeared in the autumn of 1857, so that the author 

 could not have seen Gray's papers on the subject communicated to the Zoological Society 

 in the same year. I am not aware which was published first, but think it probable that 

 this volume may have been issued before the publication of Gray's Synopsis, which 

 occupies the last pages of the 1857 volume. In any case it is unfortunate that two 

 important and independent revisions of the order should have been published in the 

 same year, and that no attempt has since been made to bring their results into harmony. 

 Milne-Edwards, acting on the suggestions of Dana, forms a new suborder of the 

 Zoantharia, Zoantharia sclerobasica or Antipatharia,, for this group. He is of opinion 

 that the spinose nature of the axis insisted on by Pallas and others as an essential 

 character, though usual, is not universal, and cannot be regarded as of ordinal value. 



Milne-Edwards adopts the genera Cirrhipathes, Blainville, and Leiopathes, Gray, 

 and proposes to further subdivide the original genus of Pallas, by the establishment 

 of three new genera. A glance at the subjoined table will show the arrangement 

 proposed : — 



simple — rod-like, ...... Cirrhipathes, Blainville. 



Sclerobasic axis - 



branched and - 



\ chitinous; 

 surface 

 of large 

 "branches 



' free. 



rough ; 



branchlets 



smooth ; ccenenchyma containing 

 siliceous elements, 



Antipathes (Pall.) emend. 



coalescent, ( tufts, Arachnopathes, n. gen. 

 and disposed <. 

 in form of (a fan, Rhipidipathes, n. gen. 



Leiopathes, Gray. 



vitreous, 



. II yalopathes, n. gen. 



Milne-Edwards admits that with the little knowledge then available of the 

 morphology of the Antipathidse, it would be difficult to establish natural genera with 

 certainty, and the arrangement proposed in the above table is given mainly with a view 

 to aid in the determination of species. It will be seen that the generic name Antipathes 

 is retained in a modified sense. Those forms having, or supposed to have, a vitreous 

 sclerenchyma are separated under the name Hyalopathes ; those having a chitinous axis 

 and showing more or less complete fusions amongst the branches are allocated to two 

 new genera. Arachnopathes includes those forms having the branchlets more or less 

 collected into tufts, and Rhipidijxtthes those which, like A. flabellum, have a fan-like 

 growth, and have the branches and branchlets confluent. Thus those species which 

 remain to constitute the genus Antipathes, in sensu Milne- Edwards, may be shortly 



