REPORT ON THE ANTIPATHARIA. 117 



viscous substance, probably secreted by some other animal, and this in drying may have 

 produced the appearance referred to. 



The portion of the specimen figured is 80 cm. long, and bears a strong short basal 

 framework to which several large fan-like fronds have been attached. 



Habitat.— Station 308; January 5, 1876 ; lat. 50° 8' 30" S., long. 74° 41' 0"W.; Strait 

 of Magellan; depth, 175 fathoms; bottom, blue mud. 



Antipaihetta reticulata, (Esper) non Gray (PI. XII. fig. 3). 



Antipathes reticulata, Esper, Pflanzenth. Fortsetz., pt. i. p. 183, pi. Antip. 11; Pourtales, Bull. 



Mus. Comp. Zool., 1SS0, pi. iii. fig. 22. 

 Rhipidipatkes reticulata, Milne-Edwards, Coralliaires, vol. i. p. 321. 



"A. explanata ramis inordinate adscendentibus, ramulis clathratis, scaberrimis " 

 (Esper, loc cit). 



The type in the Erlangen University Museum is not a complete specimen, but Esper 

 thinks it may have been about 30 cm. in diameter. The whole surface is flattened, 

 and the branches, which are slender and placed irregularly, become fused together into an 

 open lattice work. All the branches are subalternately pinnate bearing straight or 

 somewhat arched pinnules, the smaller ones coming off nearly at right angles, the 

 larger ones often at an acute angle. On the apical and smaller branches the pinnules 

 are usually simple and about 6 to 12 mm. long and comparatively regular in position, 

 about eight to a centimetre. Some of the longer ones bear one or more very short 

 secondary pinnules coming off at right angles and usually on one side only. 



In an older portion of the colony the pinnules become 2"5 to 4 cm. long and much 

 stronger, bearing secondary pinnules at right angles and often on both sides, similar in 

 all respects to those in the upper portion of the specimen, but often longer (2 to 

 6 mm.). 



The whole of the pinnules, both primary and secondary, form a lacework between 

 the branches, and anastomoses are frequent in all parts of the colony. Esper describes 

 the spines as close-set, obtuse, and stiff, sometimes club-shaped, and sometimes pointed. 

 Judging from his figures they are very strong and large for such a delicate species. 

 This species does not appear to have been described by subsequent investigators. 

 Lamarck, Lamouroux, and Dana repeat Esper's definition. If Esper 's plate xi. is to be 

 relied on, the species is certainly unlike any with which I am acquainted. The specimen 

 which Gray (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1857) refers to this species is really widely different 

 and more closely allied to Antipathella gracilis (Gray). It has none of the short stiff 

 secondary pinnules so characteristic of this form, and also differs considerably in the size 

 and arrangement of the spines. 



There are two specimens in the Copenhagen University Museum which appear to be 



