fe 



MUSEUM OF COMPAEATIVE ZOOLOGY. 25 



Dasygorgia splendens Vereill, sp. nor. 



Coral slender, spirally branched, much as in D. spiculosa and D. Agassizii, 

 but it apparently has a lower and more bushy growth. Main stem rather 

 stout, bent in zigzag ; distance between branches usually 5 to 8 mm. Axis 

 polished, with a very brilliant metallic iridescence, in which deep emerald- 

 green and blue tints predominate ; in the branches the axis is amber-colored, 

 with less iridescence. Coenenchyma thin, with small fusiform spicula. The 

 calicles are distant, rather stouter than in most species of the genus, but per- 

 haps a little shorter than in D. spiculosa; they mostly stand a little obliquely 

 ascending on the branches, and are much broader than the smaller ones; they 

 are nearly cylindrical, or only a little constricted above the base, which is a 

 little expanded; summit prominently eight-lobed. The calicles are thickly cov- 

 ered with rather large, oblong, blunt, thickened, smoothish, iridescent spicula, 

 which rise up distinctly above the surface and are not closely imbricated; they 

 lie nearly longitudinally on the sides, but obliquely at the base, where the 

 largest ones are situated. The spicula of the coenenchyma are smaller, flat- 

 tened, oblong and fusiform, often with indented edges, but with a smooth, 

 lustrous, iridescent surface. 



Off Santa Cruz, Stations 124 and 131, in 580 fathoms, Blake Expedition, 

 1878-79. 



Chrysogorgia Desbonni Duch. & Mich. 



DncHASsAiNG & MicHELOTTi, Supplement Me'm. Corall. des Antilles, pp. 13, 21, 



pi. 1, figs. 7, 8, pi. 4, fig. 6. 



Plate II. Figs. 6, 6 a, 6 b. 



Coral flabellafce, sometimes with the branches all in one plane, in other 

 cases dividing near the base into two or more principal branches, which stand 

 parallel and -take a fan-shaped form. The main branches divide repeatedly 

 into smaller branches by successively forking. The branchlets are divergent, 

 and the forks are from 3 to 6 mm. apart. The terminal branchlets are small, 

 short, and somewhat rigid. The axis is rather hard, rigid, somewhat calcare- 

 ous, in the main stem and larger branches dark brown or brownish black, in 

 the smaller branchlets yellowish brown, translucent. Coenenchyma thin, white 

 in alcholic specimens, and composed of irregular, oblong and fusiform, roughly 

 warted spicula (Figs. 6 a, 6 b). Calicles scattered, often secund, prominent, 

 more or less enlarged at the summit ; they stand at right angles to the branches, 

 or even turn somewhat downward. The calicles (Fig. 6) are covered with 

 rather large, elongated, roughly warted, curved spicula, arranged transversely, 

 the curvature of the spicula corresponding to the surface of the calicles; sum- 

 mit of the calicles strongly eight-lobed, the lobes corresponding to the bases of 

 the tentacles, and filled with smaller spicula. 



Height of ordinary specimens, 65 to 80 mm. ; breadth, 60 to 70 mm. 



