Boone, Coelenter^ata, Cruises of "Ara" and "Alva" 



63 



Genus: ALCYONIUM Linne, emended 



Alcyonium confertum (Dana) 



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Plate 14 



Type: Dana's type came from the Fiji Islands, where it 

 was collected by the United States Exploring Expedition. It is 

 deposited in the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 



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Text figure 3. 



-Alcyonium confertum, (Dana), typical spicules 

 from cortex, greatly enlarged. 



Distribution: Fiji Archipelago (Dana; Boone). 

 Material examined: Three large colonies, taken by the 

 "Alva" at Vitu Levu, Suva, Fiji Islands, September 9, 1931. 



Colour : The colony is a dull purplish brown and the partially 

 expanded polyps are brown. 



Technical description : The colony, dead and shrunken, is 

 comparatively low-growing, with a height of 12 centimeters, 

 length of 12 centimeters and average width of 6 centimeters. It 

 is rather rigid, coriaceous, stipitate, the pedicel being stout and 

 supporting numerous short, cylindrical branches, which on the 

 average vary from 4 to 9 millimeters diameter and 8 to 22 milli- 

 meters high, being distally tapered to a blunt rounded apex. The 



