REPORT ON THE ANTIPATHARIA. 23 



A. panicidata, D. and M., whole paniculate branches are without adhesions, and the 

 fusion affects only the stem and stronger branches. Finally we have in A. tristis, 

 Duehassaing, a type in which actual confluence of parts has ceased to exist, and where, 

 as Pourtales assures us, the fusions described by Duehassaing are more properly to be 

 considered merely as adherences. It only requires one step further to reach such types 

 as A. pedata, Gray, on the one hand, and A. myriophyUa, Pallas, on the other. 

 Both types are fan-like, the former relatively simple with elongate pinnules, the latter 

 quite as complex as A. Jlabellum, Pallas, but entirely without fusions. 



It will thus be seen that the presence of fusions between certain parts of the 

 corallum is not a reliable character for generic purposes. 



This fact will be brought out still more prominently if we now consider the structure 

 of the polyps of some of these forms, and enquire whether in any case species not 

 possessing Rhipidipathan characters have a type of polyps found also in that group, and 

 vice versa. I have not been able to study the polyps of Antipathes Jlabellum, the 

 only specimens available being dry, as in most of the species referred to. In Anti- 

 pathella assimilis, n. sp., the form of the reticulate corallum is almost identical with 

 that of Antipathes reticulata, Esp. The polyp of this species is rounded or oval and is 

 provided with six tentacles, two of which, those at each extremity of the mouth, are 

 usually, though apparently not always, inserted at a lower level than the other four. 

 According to Pourtales the zooids of Antipathes tristis have a similar form and 

 arrangement of the tentacles. This type of polyp is by no means confined to species 

 presenting fusions between different parts of the axis, but is seen typically in Anti- 

 pathes subpinnata, Ellis and Solander, and other laxly pinnate types. Aphanijiathes 

 cancellata, n. sp., has quite a different form of polyp — a type which Pourtales has 

 termed sessile. The polyp is oval and so short that it is almost hidden amongst the 

 spines of the sclerenchyma, which often project through the ectoderm in spirit specimens, 

 as is figured by Pourtales in the case of Antipathes humilis. Here again this type of 

 polyp is by no means confined to the species of the genus Rhip)idip>at]tes, but is common 

 to Aphanipathes sarothamnoides, n. sp., and a number of non-reticulate species from the 

 West Inches described by Pourtales. It is true that in Rhipidipathes jlabellum, and also 

 in two or three new species which are probably allied to it, the reticulum is formed in a 

 different manner to that of either Aphanipathes cancellata or Antipathella assimilis, 

 and at present we know nothing of the polyps of these types. Unless, however, they 

 should ultimately prove to have a form of zooid unlike any yet described, the generic 

 name Rhipidipathes ceases to have any systematic value. I have not retained it here, 

 because it would be necessary to use it in a restricted sense, and in the absence of 

 further information on the subject it seems advisable so far as possible to refer all species 

 of which the zooids are not known to the genera with which they seem to have most 

 in common. 



