REPORT ON THE ANTIPATHARIA. 149 



but the upper third is reddish brown, becoming fulvous at the tip. The portion above 

 the hook is simple, nearly straight, and scarcely tapering, having a diameter of lx0'4 

 mm. near the middle. The branches are regularly alternate ; the lower ones are black in 

 the basal portion, but all are membranous and fulvous near the apex. One specimen 

 bears forty-eight branches, all of them being simple and arising at an acute angle, which is 

 rather narrow in the upper portion of the corallum, but much wider below. The two 

 series of branches are alternate, and extend almost in one plane. The lower ones are 

 very long, and are often gently curved upwards towards the apex. The branches rapidly 

 become shorter from the lower ones towards the apex of the stem. The basal branches 

 are 20 cm. long, those about one-third higher are 11 cm., those two-thirds higher 57 cm., 

 whdst the apical ones are only 2 "5 cm. long. The lower branches are rather farther apart 

 than those above. There are ten branches to 5 cm. below and fifteen in the same 

 distance near the apex. 



The spines are very short and conical, with a sharp apex, but all are compressed 

 laterally. They are of the same type as those of Schizopathes crassa, but are more 

 numerous. An indication of an irregular dextrorse spiral arrangement is sometimes 

 observable, but more usually three, four, or five spines are arranged at the same level on a 

 branch, forming incomplete verticils. They are also arranged in longitudinal rows, five 

 of which may be counted from one aspect, but the spines are more numerous in some 

 rows than in others (PI. IX. fig. 4). 



The zooids are similar to those of Sehizop>athes crassa, but smaller, and the promi- 

 nence on which the mouth opens is neither so long nor so cylindrical. The five specimens 

 referred to this species show the zooids in various stages of degeneration. In two of 

 them they are close together from the apex to near the base of the branches — a condition 

 simdar to that in Schizopathes crassa, and one which I regard as normal. In two others 

 the zooids are normal and close together on the terminal 3 to 8 cm. of a branch, but 

 below that become separated from one another by a considerable interval, as in Bathy- 

 pathes. It should, however, be noted that in the species under consideration the isolated 

 zooids are degenerate ; the body of the zooid becomes gradually more and more reduced, 

 untd near the base of a branch it is entirely obliterated, and two slender tentacles 

 projecting from the ccenenchyma are all that remain to indicate its position. It is one 

 of these specimens which has been chosen for illustration (PI. IX. fig. l). The fifth 

 specimen has the polyps normally distributed on the apical portions of the branches, but 

 those below are almost entirely obliterated. This species is distinguished at a glance 

 from Schizop>athes crassa, on account of the different relative development of its branches 

 and the greater degree of curvature in the hooked base, which is simdar in all the 

 specimens. 



Habitat— Station 195 ; October 3, 1874 ; lat. 4° 21' S., long. 129° T E., off Banda 

 Islands; depth, 1425 fathoms ; bottom, blue mud. Four specimens. 



