64 Bulletin Vanderbilt Marine Miiseum, Vol. VII 



method of arrangement and branching is shown in pi. 14. The 

 polyps are numerous, small, paniculate, about 1 millimeter apart, 

 each composed of a brief pedicel, supporting 8 stout, fingerlike 

 tentacles which are distally tapered, blunt, this distal end show- 

 ing under high magnification a surface bearing numerous small 

 asperities. 



The spicules in an average small branch of the colony appear 

 to be laid in a pattern of obliquely placed spicules with the ends 

 fitting in the spaces between the tapered tips of the series of spic- 

 ules adjacent at either end. The spicules are large, spindle shape 

 with a slightly curved or bowed aspect and are covered with 

 numerous coarse, conical asperities. Four variants of this spindle 

 are to be found in quantity; (a) a straight large spindle with 

 tapered ends, measuring 2 millimeters long and 0.5 millimeters 

 median width ; (b) a spindle similar to the above in size, but more 

 tapered at the apices and medially constricted to narrowed neck, 

 only 0.3 millimeters diameter, while the distal portions are 0.5 mil- 

 limeters wide in a spicule 2 millimeters long; (c) a more slender 

 spindle about 1.8 millimeters long and 0.35 millimeters wide; (d) 

 a smaller stout spindle shape about 1.5 millimeters long and 0.4 

 millimeters diameter. 



References Alcyonium confertum, Dana, J. D., in Wilkes, 

 Charles, U. S. Explor. Exped., vol. VII, p. 621, atlas, VII, 

 pi. 57, fig. 7-a-b. 



Genus: SARCOPHYTUM Lesson, emended 

 Sarcophytum reticulatum, new species 



Plates 15, 16 and 17 



Type : The holotype was dredged in Pulo Condore, Anambas 

 Islands, South China Sea, by the "Ara," February 4, 1929, and is 

 deposited in the Vanderbilt Marine Museum. 



Distribution : Anambas Islands, South China Sea, littoral. 



Technical description : The colony, which in the preserved 

 specimen is a drab light yellowish brown, the dorsum of the capi- 

 tulum reticulated with white spicules forming a hexagonal, honey- 



