REPORT ON THE ANTIPATHARIA. Ill 



bearing lateral and subvertical pinnules in the usual way, their size depending on the 

 size of the branchlet. The pinnules vary from 1"3 to 3 '8 cm. in length, but most come 

 nearer the shorter dimension. It is usually (always ?) certain of the lateral pinnules 

 which develop into smaller branchlets, and these may be 1"2 to 2 "5 cm. apart. The 

 four series of pinnules are often tilted obliquely to one side. 



The arrangement of the pinnules in four series brings this form near to Aphanipathes 

 alata, but the two are really very different. In this form the branches, branchlets, and 

 pinnules are all slender, and the pinnules are relatively far apart, the smaller lateral 

 branchlets breaking the lax plumose effect which might otherwise be obtained. In 

 Aphanipathes alata the lateral pinnules are closely set like the pinnules of a feather, and 

 the whole four series are much more distinct. The two forms differ also in the arrange- 

 ment of the spines. Here they are relatively large, subconical, and distant, being arranged 

 in irregular open and steep sinistrorse spirals. They are also arranged in longitudinal 

 rows, four of which may be counted from one aspect of a pinnule. The members of a 

 row are from three to four lengths apart (PL XII. fig. 2). This species seems more closely 

 related to Parantipathes hirta (Gray), but is much more lax in its growth, and the 

 pinnules are longer and more definitely arranged in rows. Its precise position cannot be 

 decided until the polyps have been studied. 



Habitat. — Japan (Anderson), Brit. Mus. 



Antipathella ? tristis (Duch.). 



Rhipidipathes tristis, Duchassaing, Rev. d. Zooph. et d. Spongiaires d. Antilles, Paris, 1870, 



pp. 23, 24. 

 Antipathes tristis, Pourtales, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. vi. p. 115, pi. iii. fig. 10. 



" Humilis, delicatula, 3 pollicaris, flabellatim expansa ; ramis tenuibus, capillaribus, 

 tenuissime (oculo armato) hirsutis, reticulatim anastomosantibus, nee nodoso-strangulatis " 

 (Duchassaing, op. cit., p. 23). 



Pourtales obtained several specimens of this delicate species from 3 to 4 inches high. 

 He remarks that the branches are very slender, and anastomoses not plentiful ; they 

 are more properly defined as adherences. The spines are sharp, triangular, and arranged 

 in irregular dextrorse (?) spirals (cf. Pourt., 71, pi. iii. fig. 10). Polyps small, with short 

 digitiform tentacles and moderately prominent mouth ; the two lower tentacles are some- 

 times laid around the mouth, as in Stichopjathes pourtalesi. 



Habitat. — Guadeloupe, 200 feet (Duchassaing). Ranges from 45 to 226 fathoms in 

 eight stations off Santa Cruz, Montserrat, Martinique, St. Lucia, and Barbadoes 

 (Pourtales). 



