REPORT ON THE ANTIPATHARIA. 163 



confluence. The species is quite unlike an}- which I have seen, and I am unable to 

 suo-ojest its affinities. 



Professor Liitken has obtained a second specimen from Greenland, which is 16 cm. 

 high, 22 cm. broad, and 9 cm. thick. The stem is nearly straight, and has a very broad 

 dilation at the base. It gives rise to a number of long branches from the antero-lateral 

 margins at right angles, which are usually in pairs and subopposite. The pairs are about 

 1 cm. apart. The main branches, some of which are 14 cm. long, again bear branchlets 

 in pairs (about three pairs in 4 cm.), and at right angles, from the antero-lateral margins. 

 The branchlets may reach 8 cm. in length ; those over 6 cm. usually bear a single 

 secondary branchlet. Fusions are frequent in all parts of the colony. The older parts 

 of the corallum are dark and glossy, the others have a bright reddish brown tint, and 

 are semitransparent. The spines are flattened, and have an elongate slender apex 

 standing out at right angles to the axis. They are disposed in longitudinal rows, nine 

 or ten of which may be counted from one aspect of a branchlet. The spines in some 

 of the rows are numerous, one to two lengths apart ; in others they are placed at irregular 

 intervals, which are sometimes very great (PI. XII. fig. 26). 



Habitat. — North Greenland. One specimen was obtained from the stomach of a 

 shark (Scymnus microcephahis). 



[Genus Arachnopathes, M.-Edw.J 



"Axe sclerobasique se divisant en une multitude de branches tres-greles qui se dirigent 

 en divers sens et se soudent entre elles aux points de rencontre, de facon a constituer des 

 reseaux dont la reunion forme une touffe arrondie" (M.-Edw., op. cit, p. 320). 



The only character by which the species referred to this genus can at present be 

 separated from other Antipathidse, consists in the fact that the branches and their 

 derivatives are fused into a mass several centimetres in thickness, instead of being flat. 

 In the absence of information concerning the polyps this genus is retained temporarily. 



Arachnopathes ericoides (Pall.), M.-Edw. (PL XI. fig. 22). 



Antipathes ericoides, Pallas, Elench. Zooph., p. 218; Esper, Prlanzenth., pi. vi.; Lamarck, &c. 

 Arachnopathes ericoides, M. -Edwards, Coralliaires, t. i. p. 320. 



" A. ramosissima, hispidissima, atra, ramis sparsis, ramulis ubique crebris subulatis " 

 (Pallas, op. cit.). 



This species constitutes the type of M. -Edwards' genus Arachnopathes. The following 

 is his description : — " Branches greles, nombreuses, tres ecartees entre elles, tres finement 

 echinule'es, et ne differant presque pas des ramuscules." There is a specimen in the 

 British Museum which appears to be the species described by Milne-Edwards, but I am 

 uncertain as to its identity with the original type of Pallas. The mode of branching is 



