REPORT ON THE ANTIPATHARIA. 145 



only. The pinnules are usually from 0*6 to 1"2 cm. long, but a few are longer. As in 

 other forms, a pinnule, by increase in importance and the development of a secondary 

 series of pinnules on all sides, becomes one of the smaller branchlets. All the lower 

 pinnules (2 cm. long) on the more important branchlets bear four to six secondary 

 pinnules 0'3 to 1 cm., all springing from one side. Some of these bear two to four short 

 processes also all on one side (the inner) ; most are simple, but one here and there 

 may be forked (PI. II. fig. 11). This peculiar subdivision of the pinnules is not met 

 with in any other species known to me, but a more rudimentary condition of the 

 same type of branching is seen in Aphanipathes ? barbadensis, n. sp. 



The spines are of medium length, subcylindrical, and hooked upwards. They are 

 arranged in steep dextrorse spirals and also in longitudinal rows, five of which may be 

 counted from one aspect of a pinnule. The members of a row are from one to two 

 lengths apart, and the spines in some rows are longer and more hooked than those in 

 others, recalling the condition in Parantipathes larix (PL XL fig. 1). 



Habitat. — West Indies (Scrivener), Brit. Mus. 



Parantipathes? columnar is (Duch.). 



Araclinopathes columnaris, Duchassaing, Rev. d. Zooph. et d. Spongiaires d. Antilles, 1870, 



p. 23. 

 Antipathes columnaris, Pourtales, Cat. Mus. Comp. Zobl., pt. viii., 1874, p. 46, pi. ix. fig. 8; 



Bull Mus. Comp. Zobl, 1878, p. 209 ; ibid, 1880, p. 117, pi. iii. fig. 3. 



" Ramis ramulisque inter se crassitie a?qualibus, centralibus inter se crebre anastomos- 

 antibus, ac inde columnam centralem reticulatim semulantibus ; ramulis exterioribus e 

 columna nascentibus ; pinnulis brevibus, tenue muricatis, nee nodoso-geniculatis" 

 (Duch., he. cit.). 



Pourtales, who has found this species abundant amongst the collections of the 

 " Blake " Expeditions, gives the following additional particulars : — 



The stem is simple, the branchlets in verticils close together, themselves verticillate 

 and sometimes biverticillate, coalescing occasionally. The verticillate branchlets give 

 this species a bottle-brush form. The spines are very small, triangular and blunt, 

 somewhat longer at the tip of the pinnules (cf. Pourt., 71, pi. iii. fig. 3). The central 

 reticulated column is hollow and the habitation of an Annelid, which seems to compel the 

 corallum to form an abnormal growth of that shape. Height of the corallum 9 to 10 cm. 



The polyps, according to the observations of Pourtales, are small and difficult to see ; 

 they are of the sessile type, the tentacles appearing only as small knobs disposed in three 

 pairs on the branchlets, but spread out on the stem. The polyps are rather abundant 

 in the network forming the tube for the parasitic worm. Two of the specimens obtained 

 were destitute of the parasite, and of the tube produced by it ; their branchlets are 

 more spiny, but the general shape is the same. 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. PART LXXX. 1889.) Llll 19 



