14 BULLETIN OF THE 



Acanella iNormani Verrill. 



Acanella arhuscula Norman, Proc. Royal Soc. London, 1876, p. 210 (? tion Johnson, 

 1»62). 



Acanella Normani Verrill, Amer. Jour. Sci., XVI., 1878, p. 212 (descr.) ; XXIII., 



1882, p. 315. 



Plate IV. Figs. 3, 2 a, 3 b. 



This coral grows in symmetrical, thickly branched, bush-like forms, usually 

 6 to 10 inches high, and 6 to 8 inches broad. The base is calcareous, and 

 divides into several large, divergent, irregularly palmate and digitate lobes or 

 root-like branches, which serve to anchor and support the coral on the soft 

 muddy bottoms Avhich it usually inhabits ; occasionally, however, the basal 

 expansion attaches itself to pebbles, and in that case becomes incrusting, in 

 part or wholly, according to the size of the pebble. The main central stem 

 usually grows upright, in normal specimens, commonly with a short trunk, 

 25 to 50 mm. (1 to 2 inches) long, destitute of branches; above this the 

 main branches are given off symmetrically, from the short horny joints, mostly 

 in whorls of four at each of the joints, which are usually from 15 to 20 mm. 

 apart. The branches are strongly divergent and spreading, and they give off 

 from their horny joints similar whorls of branchlets, usually three or four to 

 each joint; these are usually somewhat farther apart than those of the main 

 stem, commonly 20 to 25 mm. The smaller branches are slender, with longer 

 calcareous joints, and they give off slender branchlets from their horny joints, 

 only one or two usually arising from a joint. The terminal branchlets are 

 long, slender, divergent, with longer calcareous joints than the larger branches. 

 The main stem and most of the larger branches are destitute of calicles, and 

 along the smaller branches they are rather distantly and irregularly scattered, 

 becoming more numerous, closer, and larger on the terminal branches, and 

 especially toward their tips, where there is often a group of two or three, or 

 more. 



The calicles are long and prominent, divergent, and nearly rigid, owing to 

 the large and long spines with which they are filled; they vary considerably 

 in size and form, those at the tips of the branches (Fig. 2 a) being somewhat 

 larger and better developed than most of those along their sides. These larger 

 calicles are swollen at base, narrowed or subpedunculated just above the base, 

 and then gradually enlarged toward the summit, where the margin is sur- 

 rounded by eight long, slender spines, formed by the projecting ends of the 

 large spicula; within the marginal spines the incurved tentacles are usually to 

 be seen in alcoholic specimens. Below the margin the calicles are composed 

 of numerous long, slender warted spicula, which vary considerably in size and 

 form; those on the swollen basal portion are smaller, crowdedly imbricated, 

 but do not project. The spicula are conspicuous in dried specimens, in which 

 they are commonly less regular, and take oblique and more or less twisted 

 positions. The calicles along the sides of the branches are irregularly ar- 



